Amundi bolsters responsible investment range with equity and fixed income ETFs

12 nov 2018

Amundi ETF announces the expansion of its Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) ETF range to cover both equity and fixed income asset classes.

SRI and consideration of ESG criteria have become mainstream for institutional and retail investors worldwide. ESG strategies now account for about a quarter of global assets under management, with close to 25% growth over the past two years.[1]

Amundi considers responsible investment as one of its four founding pillars. Following the announcement of a three-year responsible investment  action plan in early October 2018, Amundi confirms its founding engagement as a responsible investor, through enhanced extra-financial analysis, stronger voting policies and ESG advisory services.

As part of this plan, Amundi announces the launch of a new SRI ETF range, built across equity and fixed income asset classes, aimed at providing cost-efficient SRI tools to investors. This includes three new equity ETFs based on the MSCI World, USA and Europe SRI indices, offered at the most competitive ongoing charges in Europe[2]. These funds will later be complemented by a further addition, tracking the MSCI EM SRI index.

These new funds will complement the Amundi ETF fixed income SRI range, which includes two ETFs replicating the Bloomberg Barclays Euro and US corporate bond indices  and implementing the MSCI SRI methodology.

Fannie Wurtz, Managing Director, Amundi ETF, Indexing and Smart Beta, said: “Amundi is committed to meeting the growing need for socially responsible investment solutions. Investors will now be able to benefit from a full range of SRI ETFs, spanning both equity and fixed income, and at a competitive cost. Alongside this range of ETF and index funds, we will also continue to work closely with investors and build bespoke ESG solutions aimed at serving their particular needs.”

[1] Global Sustainable Investment Alliance  2016

[2] Source: Amundi ETF at end October 2018

[3] Ongoing charges - annual, all taxes included. For Amundi ETF funds, the ongoing charges correspond to the Total Expense Ratio. The ongoing charges represent the charges taken from the fund over a year. When the fund has not closed its accounts for the first time, the ongoing charges are estimated. It compares the annual total management and operating costs (all taxes included) charged to a fund against the value of that fund's assets. Transaction cost and commissions may occur when trading ETFs.