On the 16th of October at the Annual Spainsif event, we presented the latest study of the SRI market in Spain. This study is a snapshot of the state and evolution of SRI in this country.

The SRI market in Spain was valued at 185,614 million euros in 2017. These assets show 10% growth between 2015 and 2017.

The principal strategy remains exclusion, but the last two years have seen a deceleration in the growth rate of this strategy. In contrast, Best-in-Class and ESG integration have had a high growth rate: a consequence of a transverse of Screening norms based on the only strategy having a negative growth rate in this measure.

The quality of SRI in Spain has grown over the last few years due to pressure from the market, which has advanced strategies such as the Best-in-Class and ESG integration—the latter becoming the strategy with the most assets under management, only falling behind the exclusion strategy. However, there is still a great deal to do because the assets under ESG’s advanced strategies represent only 20% of all ESG assets.

This trend in the market also exists in ESG investment funds, the main investment drive in Spain, which have achieved a total of 182 ESG investment funds marketed in Spain as of 2017, with a growth of 12% in the last two years. This supply indicates something about the higher intensity of asset managers’ intentions regarding sustainability and responsible investments.

In summary, although the growth rate this year is less than the growth rate in the other reports, on this occasion, a change in trend has been observed in favour of a higher quality of growth.

It seems that the sustainable and responsible investment market in Spain is at the dawn of a new stage of quality growth, in which it will be supported by international initiatives, administrations, and widespread demand from investors.