Active investment managers must consider ESG when building portfolios today

Liz Skinner [00:00:03] Welcome to 3 Questions, I’m Liz Skinner with InvestmentNews and I’m excited to introduce you to Lisa Jones. She is CEO and president of the US and head of America’s at Amundi Asset Management. The firm is a $2 trillion asset manager with its global headquarters in France and US headquarters in Boston. It has an ESG heritage that goes back to nineteen twenty eight. And we’ll start off by asking Lisa about that. So thank you again for joining us, Lisa. 

Lisa Jones [00:00:33] Thank you, Liz. It’s a pleasure to be here. 

Liz Skinner [00:00:35] So tell us a little bit about the US origins of Amundi and its consideration of ESG criteria. 

Lisa Jones [00:00:44] So as we know, ESG has become mainstream today. We talk about it every day. We see it in the newspaper. We see it in discussions and interviews like this. But ESG is really an outgrowth of SRI, of socially responsible investing, which has been around for a very long time, and Pioneer Investments. That is the legacy firm in the US that Amundi acquired has been one of the early portfolio managers of socially responsible investing. Our roots traced back to nineteen twenty eight. We launched one of America’s first mutual funds, the Pioneer Fund, and it was one of the original SRI funds. We’ve not invested in alcohol, tobacco or gaming over the last many decades, and as the decades went on, our investment team began incorporating ESG ratings and factors into our investment process, and 2017 Amundi pace based in Paris, as you mentioned, was acquired Pioneer Investments. And that just catapulted us into the whole ESG framework. Of the two trillion, more than eight hundred billion is in dedicated ESG assets under management. And while the US has certainly gained momentum, we know that being based in Paris, which is somewhat of an epicenter of all things responsible investing Amundi has had a leadership role for quite some time. 

Liz Skinner [00:02:11] And so what are the socially responsible investment trends and strategies that you are seeing that are particularly resonating with investors right now? 

Lisa Jones [00:02:22] Quite simply, all things climate and climate change and net zero are very much in vogue and in focus. And as we’ve all experienced with covid-19 and the social injustice that we experienced last year, in particular, the S of ESG has also become in focus not only at the investment level, but also in examining companies, corporate governance, the fiduciary responsibility and really the oversight. So those are two of the prominent themes. Investing with intentionality of an outcome and a purpose are some of the key trends that we believe will be here for quite some time. 

Liz Skinner [00:03:04] And do you think that there are signs that one day all investing and all due diligence processes with regards to investments will actually incorporate an analysis of how a company performs with regards to ESG factors? 

Lisa Jones [00:03:19] I believe that we’re already here. It’s very hard to be a fundamental active investment manager and not consider ESG as factors in your portfolio construction. There’s an environmental disaster, a social problem, a governance issue. Those have financial impacts and concerns. So I do believe that it’s part of every consideration with clients. We’re also beginning to see is further momentum on investing with purpose and investing with intentionality. And once regulation and reporting and transparency catches up to that, I believe we’ll have a very strong foundation for the future of all things ESG. 

Liz Skinner [00:04:05] Very good. Lisa, thank you very much for joining us today. 

Lisa Jones [00:04:08] Nice to see you. Thank you.