ESG hype has SEC focusing on greenwashing (Tearsheet)

With more demand than ever for green or “sustainable” investments, the SEC wants to make sure there’s legitimacy to ESG claims made by firms offering these investments. Recent investigations of DWS, BNY Mellon and now Goldman Sachs show the SEC has ramped up its scrutiny of greenwashing, where misleading or exaggerated claims about sustainable investing criteria are made. Amy Lynch, FrontLine’s Founder and President, describes a trend of increasing demand for ESG investments that began initially with pressure from institutional investors seeking more environmentally friendly ways of investing. Now, Ms. Lynch adds, demand has spun over to the retail sector where banks have capitalized on the expanding interest while also capturing the attention of the SEC. See Tearsheet, “Green Finance Briefing: Greenwashing on Wall Street, and climate tech stocks outperforming the market”