Despite the slowdown in economic growth over the last two years, the European market for socially responsible investment (SRI) market has almost doubled since 2008, and is now worth in the region of €5trn in assets under management.

The findings, from Eurosif's 2010 European SRI Study, highlight the scale of the European SRI Market as well as European and National Trends across nineteen countries, including for the first time the Baltic States, Poland, Greece and Cyprus.

Some of the Study's most important findings include, among others:

• The total SRI assets under management (AuM) have increased from €2.7 trillion to €5 trillion, as of December 31, 2009. This represents a spectacular growth of about 87% since the data was previously collected two years before.
• As in the previous editions of the study (2008, 2006, 2003), Eurosif continues to utilise Core SRI and Broad SRI as a means to segment the SRI market. Core SRI (estimated at €1.2 trillion) consists of norms- and values- based exclusions and different types of positive screens while Broad SRI (estimated at €3.8 trillion) encompasses simple exclusion, engagement and integration approaches.
• The SRI market remains driven by institutional investors (representing 66% of the total AuM). However, the share of retail investors has increased in almost all the countries covered in the study.
• Bonds are now the favoured asset class among SRI investors, representing 53% of total SRI assets, while equities have dropped down to 33%.

Links

EUROSIF SRI Study 2010 (in English)