Ethical bonds take wing

Fund managers are becoming more receptive to the possibilities and opportunities of socially responsible investing. Why? Because the longstanding myth that such an investment strategy can jeopardise returns is slowly being eroded, as Hardeep Dhillon reports

Religion and politics. These are the subjects that etiquette suggests we avoid at dinner parties, but increasingly there is no need to avoid them when putting together an investment portfolio. In years gone by, it was a common belief that funds that avoided investments for ethical reasons would automatically end up with inferior portfolio performance, but in recent years the market for this type of investing has come of age.

Even though so-called socially responsible investment (SRI)