Investment Lessons to Learn From the VW Scandal

In recent years, more and more fund houses have started considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when making investment decisions. But the fallout from VW, along with other events such as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, has reinforced the view that fund managers need to look beyond annual reports when deciding if a business is worth investing in. Following the VW scandal, Mr Beslik says Nordea has pushed for more attention to be paid to ESG factors, within its investment process. “We have been looking at ESG for years,” he says. “But what has changed now is we understand the materiality of it much more.” It is a view echoed by many others working in the investment industry.