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ING News
Luxembourg, 08/10/2019
Luxflag's ESG label awarded to the ING Aria Sustainable Bonds investment fund!
ING Luxembourg is proud to have seen its ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund rewarded with LuxFLAG’s prestigious ESG label; a label recognised for its high standards that set the most virtuous funds active in responsible investment apart.
The ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund: a sustainability strategy
As a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment, the ING group is firmly intent on positioning itself as a player in the sphere of sustainable investment products. The ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund fits into this approach, by focusing on the green, social and sustainable bonds of the best issuers in terms of ESG practices. The 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 issuer level: application of positive and negative filters to define the pool of issuers considered sustainable.
- at instrument level: selection of the appropriate bond instrument from issuers filtered further up the line with a bias towards green, social and sustainable bonds.
“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”, said Gaëtan Salerno, Portfolio Manager at ING. “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: “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 recognized 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”.
ING and sustainable investment
As a financial institution, we play a role by financing change, sharing our knowledge and exerting our influence. Being sustainable means reducing our impact, and this is a choice that we make, for example, as an investor and through the services we offer to our clients.
Furthermore, ING and the European Investment Bank (EIB) recently made EUR 400 million available to finance sustainable investments by business enterprises in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Sustainability and society’s resilience to climate change are an inherent part of ING’s purpose: to give people the means to stay one step ahead in their lives and in their business. Obtaining the LuxFLAG label is in line with this perspective.
About LuxFLAG
The Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency is an independent, international labelling agency specialising in responsible investment. Its primary objective is to reassure investors that the assets under management held by a labelled investment vehicle are actually invested responsibly and in accordance with recognised international standards. LuxFLAG is an integral part of the Luxembourg investment fund sector, the largest in Europe and the second largest worldwide. The LuxFLAG label is granted for a year.
ING profile
Operating in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since 1960, ING is a universal and accessible bank with well-developed and user-friendly digital channels, appreciated by our retail, private and wholesale banking customer base, as well as a more personal contact through our network of branches. With over 100,000 customers, ING is one of Luxembourg’s top 5 banks and one of the country’s top 10 brands (source: 2018 KPMG Luxembourg Customer Experience Excellence Report).
Our aim is to empower people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. We believe the role of a financial institution is to support and promote economic, social and environmental progress at the same time as it generates healthy returns for shareholders.
Always at the cutting edge as regards digitisation, we were the first high-street bank to launch an online account in Luxembourg. With over 800 employees in the Grand Duchy (700 of whom are at our head office: ING Lux House) and thanks to the combination of our local presence and the strength of a robust multinational like ING, we offer our personal and business customers a wide range of solutions through the channel of their choice.
We actively contribute to the growth of the local economy, as demonstrated by the significant rise (+16%) in lending volumes during 2017. Our mortgage portfolio continued growing in 2017 (+15%), breaking the EUR 2 billion barrier for the first time. On both sides of our balance sheet, we posted double-digit growth (+18%) in 2017, reaching EUR 18.5 billion.
For more information, please contact:
ING LU Press Office
Place de la Gare, 26
L-1616 Luxembourg
T: + 352 44 99 1 – E: pressoffice@ing.lu