{"id":459,"date":"2020-06-09T10:21:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T10:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esgtoday.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2020-12-28T10:35:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T10:35:49","slug":"op-financial-reports-dramatic-increase-in-demand-for-esg-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esgtoday.com\/op-financial-reports-dramatic-increase-in-demand-for-esg-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"OP Financial Reports Dramatic Increase in Demand for ESG Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Finland-based OP Financial Group has reported significant growth in demand for sustainability-themed funds, as investors increasingly emphasize responsibility in their portfolios. OP currently offers four sustainability-themed funds \u2013 OP-Sustainable World, OP-Climate, OP-Clean Water and OP-Low-carbon World \u2013 and has seen a more than 150% increase in unitholders for these funds over the past 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commenting on the growing demand for OP\u2019s ESG investment products, and the appeal of sustainability themes to investors, Tuomas Virtala, Head of Asset Management for Corporate and Institutional Customers, OP Corporate Bank plc, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor many customers, sustainability themed funds are the easiest way to start responsible investing. Curbing climate change, producing low-emission energy and ensuring the sufficiency of clean water also constitute profitable business for many companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the company has noted that the COVID-19 crisis appears to have sharpened investor focus on ESG. OP reported today that the number of new unitholders in its sustainability-themed funds has nearly tripled in the spring, over the same period last year, and that during the market turmoil caused by the crisis, net outflows from these funds were lower than those for other funds. According to Virtala:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.op.fi\/documents\/20556\/65585\/Virtala+Tuomas\/240f5797-db9b-c079-dc67-064362653ac2?version=1.0&amp;t=1568964445103&amp;imageThumbnail=2\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"167\"\/><figcaption>Tuomas Virtala<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cIt seems that investments in sustainability themed funds are made for the long haul, and people have confidence in their positive performance. Despite the challenging market environment due to the coronavirus pandemic, the returns of, say, OP-Climate OP-Clean Water were positive over the past 12 months.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of last year, OP conducted a survey on Finns\u2019 interest in responsible investing. Results showed that three out of four Finnish private investors were interested in responsible investing, while one-third of the respondents believed that responsible investing is profitable as well. 63 per cent of respondents were unwilling to invest in issuers whose operations are not ethically sound, and 60 per cent said they want to invest in companies that are active in areas such as combating climate change.<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-459\" data-postid=\"459\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-459 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finland-based OP Financial Group has reported significant growth in demand for sustainability-themed funds, as investors increasingly emphasize responsibility in their portfolios. OP currently offers four sustainability-themed funds \u2013 OP-Sustainable World, OP-Climate, OP-Clean Water and OP-Low-carbon World \u2013 and has seen a more than 150% increase in unitholders for these funds over the past 3 years. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,39],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>OP Financial Reports Dramatic Increase in Demand for ESG Funds - ESG Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esgtoday.com\/op-financial-reports-dramatic-increase-in-demand-for-esg-funds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OP Financial Reports Dramatic Increase in Demand for ESG Funds - ESG Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Finland-based OP Financial Group has reported significant growth in demand for sustainability-themed funds, as investors increasingly emphasize responsibility in their portfolios. 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