With impact investing a term very much in mind, the UK bank has rolled out a fund that is available in a UCITS structure.

The impact investing trend continues to push ahead.

Barclays today announces the launch of a Multi-Impact Growth Fund, which it says represents a first from a large UK bank and in response to investor demand.

The lender said its own research has shown that 56 per cent of investors are interested in this type of product, but only 9 per cent have already made an investment.

The fund primarily holds third-party funds, chosen as best-in-class based on their having potential to make strong returns and on their capacity to change society and environment for the better, such as on  on affecting global warming. The fund is structured as a UCITS vehicle, so it can be held inside a tax-efficient wrapper such as an individual savings account. The ongoing charge of the fund, Barclays told this publication when asked, is 1.42 per cent, and 1.17 per cent in the first month. The management fee is 50 bps, but discounted to 25bps in the first 12 months. Additional costs will depend on the access and advice investors seek for the fund. There's no investment minimum.

Big Society Capital, a social investor that helped to seed the fund, putting in £5 million ($6.06 million).
 
The fund will be available to retail investors on the direct investing platform, Smart Investor, as well as to high net worth individuals through Barclays Wealth & Investments and Private Bank and Overseas Services.

Impact Investing is a term applied to when money is put to work to bring about certain outcomes – such as cuts in criminal re-offending rates, illiteracy or pollution – in addition to generating a financial return. There is debate on whether impact investing can match, or even beat, traditional approaches to money management; as the approach is put to work over time, it is hoped that more data will emerge to allow investors to compile benchmarks of performance. Impact investing is a relatively young field and not yet tested by a major recession.

According to a recent survey of US asset managers by Cerulli Associates, the analytics firm, a rising percentage of asset managers look at environmental, social and governance factors alongside more traditional financial tests to identify opportunities and risks. And a recent report by Boston Consulting Group and MITSloan Management Review found that investments that deliver financial results are closely correlated with those that are deemed sustainable (Investing For A Sustainable Future, 11 May 2016). Separately, a study by Barclays found that investment-grade bonds with higher ESG scores outperformed those with low ESG scores between 2007 and 2015 (source: MSCI). Impact investing has a way to go in terms of size, but the amounts are already large. There are $60 billion of impact investing assets under management, and $12.2 billion of fresh investment was expected to be put in place last year, according to the Global Impact Investing Network, a forum for the sector. One forecast has impact investing AuM topping $3 trillion over the next decade.

At a recent seminar hosted by UBS, it was pointed out that there are about 400 impact investing and related funds of their kind around the world. Industry figures tell this publication that there remains a relative dearth of products enabling HNW and other investors to tap the theme.