Germany
SRI initiatives in Germany evolved in the 1970s from the ecological and peace movements at the time. Institutional investors like churches and insurance companies have since then fostered the SRI-trend. From 2002 onwards the German government enacted disclosure regulations for pensions to encourage SRI.
The German SRI retail-market is highly dominated by foreign investment-companies, which is probably due to the fact that German banks until recently paid little attention to SRI.
Some facts about the German market:
- SRI Market Size: 6,7 billion Euros
- SRI Institutional Market Size: estimated 3 billion Euros
- Assets managed by SRI retail-funds of German origin: 1,2 billion Euros
- Average size of German SRI retail-funds: 49,72 million Euros
- Influential actors: foreign FSP, religious organisations, NGOs
- Leading Strategies: positive and negative screening
- Number of funds: total 98 – 25 funds of German origin
- Legal Milestones: disclosure regulations for pension funds (2002-2004)
- SIF (yes/no): Yes, Sustainable Investment Forum FNG since 2001
For more information on SRI in German speaking countries please visit: www.forum-ng.de
