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REYL Group
Meeting client wishes to engage more with sustainable investing, the REYL Group has launched a new impact investing fund.

Launched on 8 March, offering daily liquidity, the REYL Impact Investing Global Equities Investment Certificate is designed around contributing to the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) while delivering attractive returns, the group said.

On a similar path to other asset managers keen to roll out SRI initiatives, the goal is to satisfy growing client appetite for impact-investing products and make a difference. The Geneva-based group recruited Nicolas Pelletier last year to lead on SRI, notably in fixed income and private equity, and drive innovation in the space.

The bank said that this latest vehicle would take a conviction-based approach, investing solely in companies whose products or services have a positive impact and can show that they "contribute significantly to the SDGs." It is using proprietary methodology to assess the impact of its portfolio companies, resulting in a highly diversified portfolio spread across sectors focused on around 30 different stocks.

Investment manager Nicolas Pelletier said that assessment would involve reviewing six SDG target pillars to analyse the social impact of each company. “One of the key factors in our analysis is the companies’ positive impact on the poorest populations."

He also said that the group has formed several strategic partnerships to give them access to leading technologies, such as data mining and open source, enabling the firm to "gauge the precise impact of the companies selected within our investment vehicle."

In broader terms, REYL's CEO François Reyl said that the bank is well situated to tap SRI momentum.

“Switzerland is at the heart of a strong community advocating socially responsible investing and Geneva is one of the major impact investing hubs. SRI is extremely well developed throughout the fibre of the city, which hosts the United Nations European headquarters and other specialist international organisations, including non-governmental, foundations, microfinance and social impact-investing players, private banks, wealth managers and institutional investors,” Reyl said in a statement.

The sustainability investment requirements are enormous, he added, pointing to an annual funding shortfall by UN measures of several billion dollars for developing countries alone.

“Private and financial sector players therefore need to take their share of responsibility by providing innovative solutions to fulfill these objectives,” he said.