6.25.2004 ET

(CSRwire) UNITED NATIONS -- Twenty major investment companies - including Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Morgan Stanley - have endorsed a United Nations Global Compact report and initiative on "connecting financial markets"" to environmental, social and governance criteria, and agreed on steps to bring other actors in the financial world into accord on how these factors would become standard components in the analysis of corporate performance and investment decision-making. The 20 companies control $6 trillion in assets.

The report, entitled "Who Cares Wins", was issued at the Global Compact Leaders Summit on 24 June. Anthony Ling, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, presented the report and the initiative at the Summit.

"Mainstream investment houses are increasingly coming to the conclusion that analyzing companies' polices related to social and environmental issues must be central in their work since such commitments are fundamental in terms of risk management," said Gavin Power, a senior advisor at the Global Compact. "This report represents the beginning of a sea change in approach vis-à-vis the financial community."

A complementary report was also issued by the UN Environment Programme's Finance Initiative, which contains 11 case studies of work in this field by investment companies.

Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World; Recommendations by the financial industry to better integrate environmental, social and governance issues in analysis, asset management and securities brokerages is endorsed by ABN Amro, AXA Group, Banco do Brasil, Bank Sarasin, BNP Paribas, Calvert Group, CNP Assurances, Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Henderson Global Investor, HSBC, Innovest, ISIS Asset Management, KLP Insurance, Morgan Stanley, RCM, UBS and Westpac. Copies are available from the Global Compact Office, globalcompact@un.org.

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