RAM Active Investments (RAM AI), a Geneva-based active and alternative asset manager with USD4.8 billion in AUM, is supporting the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Launched in 2015, the TCFD is an industry-led initiative established by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and chaired by Michael R Bloomberg. Its main mission is to develop voluntary, consistent climate-related corporate financial disclosures providing crucial information to lenders, insurers, investors and other stakeholders.
The announcement comes as part of RAM Active Investments’ commitment to promote responsible investment. As a UN PRI signatory & CDP (ex-Carbon Disclosure Project) member, RAM has always considered the ethical impact which underpins its investments. RAM take a holistic approach to sustainability at both the Firm and Strategy level, ensuring its values are in line with those of its clients.
Thomas de Saint-Seine, CEO of RAM Active Investments, says: “RAM Active Investments is committed to responsible investment. We see it as an integral part of our business in line with our objective to be a responsible company. Our research efforts are aimed at ultimately improving our portfolio’s risk/return profile while also favouring responsible companies with sustainable business models. We support TCFD as we view new availability of data as key to enhance our research and better support our clients. While our investment models have always had an inherent strong quality bias, we believe that ESG factors are integral to assessing the quality of a company’s sustainability and thus are a vital part of our investment process. We believe that a systematic approach is the best way to integrate ESG data into our investment process. The added value for investors is clear.”
RAM AI joins a growing list of 513 supporters, including 287 financial and 170 non-financial companies, with a combined market capitalisation of USD7.9 trillion. The firm’s support for the TCFD aligns with its commitment to systematic ESG investing, not only through innovative product offe- rings, but also through knowledge transfer to the financial and academic communities.
On 26 September 2018, the TCFD launched its first Status Report. The report provides an overview of current disclosure practices and their alignment with the core elements of the TCFD recommendations. As part of this, the Task Force reviewed disclosures of nearly 1,800 companies across eight specific groups (four financial groups: banks, insurance companies, asset managers and asset owners; four non-financial groups: energy, transportation, materials and buildings, and agriculture, food, and forest products)
RAM AI developed its whitepaper on systematic ESG investing, in which it presented an overview of its data sources, methodology and results. The paper revealed four pillars, identified by RAM’s Quantitative Research Team, that underpin the firm’s ESG philosophy; governance, transparency, climate and diversity.
The ever-expanding availability of ESG data, driven by initiatives like the Task Force, continues to enable RAM’s Quantitative Research Team to utilise a broad range of sustainability themes across a multitude of data sets.
In the coming year, RAM will continue to focus on ESG themes, with an emphasis on the Social field. Here, RAM is specifically interested in examining how gender diversity can broaden perspectives and drive value in different settings, creating a positive impact on financial performance.
