Co-operative Insurance: Consumers increasingly interested in ethical investment

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Co-operative Insurance: Consumers increasingly interested in ethical investment

Tue 12th Feb 2008

An annual survey from Co-operative Insurance has found that 85 per cent of people planning to invest in an individual savings account (Isa) before April's deadline would consider an ethical investment, up 18 per cent on last year's number.

The survey also found that eight in ten people now believe ethical investment can perform the same or better than the mainstream market.

Co-operative Insurance's sister organisation the Co-operative Bank found that the amount held in ethical personal finance products grew by 15 per cent over the last year from £11.6 billion to £13.3 billion.

Zack Hocking, head of investments at Co-operative Insurance, said the evidence "strongly suggests" growth in the ethical investment sector is set to continue.

Its ethical fund has performed consistently well recently, providing a total return of 40.5 per cent over the last six months, against 35.2 per cent of the UK FTSE All-Share and the 27.7 per cent average return achieved by funds in the UK All Companies sector.

Mike Fox, fund manager of Sustainable Leaders Trust, said: "Ethical funds are demonstrating that responsible investing and high performance can go hand-in-hand."

Some companies offering ethical investment schemes have been accused of "green-washing" by "issuing promises that essentially conceal the true nature of the deal", according to FinanceDaily.co.uk.

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