The Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency LuxFLAG has awarded its ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) label to the ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund.
In issuing this label, LuxFLAG has recognised the Luxembourg-based ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund's focus on green, social and sustainable bonds from issuers with the best ESG practices. The fund fits into the ING group's efforts to promote sustainable investment products.
The fund's investment process combines traditional selection criteria (analysis of the risk-return profile, fundamentals of the company, etc.) with an analysis of the sustainable aspects based on a two-tier approach: at the issuer level, this involves the application of positive and negative filters to define the pool of issuers considered sustainable; at the instrument level, the process foresees the selection of the appropriate bond instrument from issuers filtered further up the line with a bias towards green, social and sustainable bonds.
Gaëtan Salerno, Portfolio Manager at ING, commented: “Transition to a sustainable economy requires the mobilisation of huge amounts of funding. Our objective is to continue our efforts to redirect investments to projects and products with a concrete environmental and social benefit. The ING Aria Sustainable Bonds Fund is managed dynamically in Luxembourg, and incorporates these environmental, social and governance criteria throughout its investment process”.
Sachin Vankalas, General Director of LuxFLAG, added: “We are pleased to announce that, the ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds has been granted the use of LuxFLAG ESG Label for a period starting on 01 October 2019 and ending on 30 September 2020. The LuxFLAG ESG Label is recognised for its high standards and rigorous assessment of applicant investment funds’ investment strategy, ESG integration into the investment process as well as an affirmation of their transparency to investors which are all key components of the Eligibility Criteria of LuxFLAG ESG Label”.
