Advisory Group launched to look at how individuals can make a social impact with their investments
The Advisory Group will look at ways to make socially themed investments more easily available to individuals and mobilise industry to help achieve this by Summer 2017
Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, today announced the creation of an Advisory Group that will look at how individuals can be offered savings and investment choices which target positive social outcomes as well as financial returns.
The Advisory Group will include senior industry representatives from across the investment industry and will be chaired by Elizabeth Corley (Vice Chair of Allianz Global Investors).
It will provide initial findings on how to increase individual participation in socially themed investments and how to mobilise the industry to achieve these aims by Summer 2017. It will report back to the government with recommendations and advice on what the Government should be doing in to raise the level of social impact intentionally delivered through the investment chain.
Rob Wilson said:
I’m convinced that people want their investments to do good as well as making a financial return. I don’t believe they currently have enough options to make that happen. I hope the advisory group will be able to chart a course to fix that.
The main question the Advisory Group will consider over the course of its work is:
How can the savings, pensions and investment industries, with the support of government, engage with individual investors to enable them to support more easily the things they care about through their savings and investment choices?
As part of this, it will consider the current barriers to development of products with social impact components, and the demand for and distribution of such products.