Deutsche Bank’s ESG Probe Triggers Review at Asset Managers
- One European firm creates internal taskforce to examine funds
- SEC’s Gensler asks for analysis of money managers’ disclosures
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European asset managers are reviewing their ESG labeling and marketing claims following news of probes into the investing arm of Deutsche Bank AG, according to people close to the process.
Anxiety around greenwashing -- mis-stating how climate friendly assets are -- is palpable across the industry as fund managers react to German and U.S. investigations of DWS Group. Though the Deutsche Bank unit says it did nothing wrong, the development has led to a moment of reckoning as fund managers wake up to a new regulatory era in which once fluffy environmental, social and governance definitions are no longer tolerated.