Growth of sustainable funds in Austria: a new trend in the financial market!

Growth of sustainable funds in Austria: a new trend in the financial market!

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) has published exciting news about the trend towards sustainable investments in Austria. According to a detailed market study, which was published today, more and more public funds are showing a strong interest in sustainability and ESG criteria. As of June 30, 2024, 477 Austrian public funds managed a total of 70.2 billion euros, with 60 % of these funds into account ESG characteristics in their investment strategy. This is a significant increase, since investments with sustainable characteristics have attracted 2.7 billion euros in new funds since 2022, despite a general market return of 3.4 billion euros in other funds, such as ​​APA-OTS reported.

The challenges of green watering

The FMA also notes that the increase in sustainable funds brings with it the risk of Greenwashing. In order to counteract this, the disclosures of these funds are checked closely, whereby automated text analysis and artificial intelligence are used to ensure that the specified promises of sustainability are actually met. The investigation shows that transparency in the disclosure correlates directly with the actual sustainability of the fund investments. In this way, investors must ensure that the selected fund also matches its own sustainability goals, which increases the relevance of information about various funds. Information on investment funds in general, which represent community investments, was also summarized in a report by Statista

In Germany, for example, the volume of the public funds at the end of 2022 was around 1,281 billion euros. Investment companies manage these funds by bundling investor money, which enables risk mixture and can compensate for price losses. Particular attention is paid to open funds that can issue new shares at any time according to the principle of capital withdrawal. These structures are particularly relevant for investors who want to understand the dynamics and the potentially high risk of sustainable investments.