- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
The $19 million fine against Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month wasn’t to punish greenwashing, experts argue.
Instead, the order was a straightforward penalty imposed for not doing what the firm claimed related to its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategy.
On Sept. 25, the SEC announced its enforcement action against registered investment adviser DWS Investment Management Americas for the firm’s alleged marketing of itself to clients and investors as a leader in ESG without properly implementing policies and procedures that ensured such statements were not misleading.
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The Financial Conduct Authority will implement a series of rules to minimize instances of “greenwashing” in the U.K. market.
DWS Investment Management Americas agreed to pay $25 million in penalties across separate settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission addressing alleged misstatements in environmental, social, and governance investments and anti-money laundering violations.
European regulators are taking greater steps to clamp down on companies’ misleading ESG claims, but experience shows different countries have differing priorities about tackling dishonest marketing.
Companies are still struggling to report meaningfully on societal risks as part of their efforts to meet demands for better environmental, social, and governance disclosures, experts discussed at Compliance Week’s Europe conference in London.
Companies that haven’t yet set up verifiable reporting in their sustainability programs have a ready reference available in the framework put out by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, experts discussed at CW’s virtual ESG Summit.
A pair of experts from vastly different companies swapped notes on how to scaffold and structure an environmental, social, and governance program at CW’s virtual ESG Summit.
