Morningstar today published its Global and European Sustainable Fund Flows reports, reviewing regional flows, assets, and launches for the first quarter of 2021.
Hortense Bioy, Global Director of Sustainability Research, comments: “2021 began where 2020 left off, with European investors continuing to pour vast amounts of money into ESG funds
Europe continues to dominate inflows into open-end funds and exchange-traded funds, accounting for 79%. The US accounted for 11.6%.
The Global Sustainable Fund Flows report examines the fund flows of 4,523 sustainable open-end funds and ETFs in Q1 2021.
The global sustainable universe attracted USD 185.3 billion in net inflows in the first quarter of 2021, up 17% from USD 158.3 billion in the prior quarter. Supported by strong inflows in Europe, global assets neared the USD 2 trillion mark, up 17.8% on last quarter.
The global report is available via this link.
Flows in the rest of the world clocked in at USD 17 billion for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Japan, and Asia combined. Product development in the first quarter hit 169 new offerings, including an all-time high of 47 launches in countries outside of Europe and the United States.
BlackRock continued to top the leader board in the first quarter of 2021, with over EUR 17.1 billion in net new money, followed at a distance by UBS and Amundi.
Based on preliminary data, funds classified as Article 8 and 9 under SFDR represent close to 24% of total European funds. As of 27th April, Morningstar has collected SFDR data on about 52% of the European universe (over 150,000 investments).
Of all the funds reviewed so far, 20.9% and 2.7% are classified as Article 8 and Article 9, respectively, representing combined assets of EUR 2.16 trillion. Note that this universe includes money market funds, funds of funds, and feeder funds.
Bioy, concluded, while European investors are pouring money into into ESG funds, “At the same time, asset managers have started reporting unexpectedly high numbers of ‘green’ funds in accordance with SFDR. Classification approaches vary, resulting in a wide range of investment products considered ‘green’, the full details of which will be disclosed next year.”
