“In March, the Investor Leadership Network, a group of institutional investors focused on social responsibility, published its Inclusive Finance Playbook, a guide that provides information metrics and best practices institutional investors are using to assess DEI efforts and apply that information to investment decisions.
Tracey Flaherty, Boston-based senior vice president and global head of corporate social responsibility and public affairs at Natixis Investment Managers, with $1.4 trillion in assets, and co-leader of the Investor Leadership Network, said that asset owners are also considering DEI data in how they measure risk. “Firms that have diverse teams tend to have higher retention rates, the financial performance is better and these firms tend to be more sustainable overall — all of those factors are risk mitigators,” she said. “We’re seeing more asset owners take that into account within their risk models and investment decisions.”