For the seventh consecutive year, the Forum pour l'investissement responsable (FIR) and the international ESG services agency Vigeo Eiris have taken the pulse of responsible investment in France. The findings of the study, presented on the occasion of the sixth edition of the responsible finance week, are ambiguous.

Did you say socially responsible investment?

The analysis, conducted on a sample of over 800 people, all holders of at least one financial product, shows broad consensus on the need for banks and investors to take into account the challenges of climate and the energy transition in their investment choices. Yet only half say they would themselves be ready to incorporate these criteria into their personal investment decisions. And things become even more complicated when socially responsible investment is explicitly mentioned: 66 per cent of those surveyed say they have never heard of it!

Banks communicate little about SRI

The figure is surprising when one considers that France is one of the countries in Europe where the SRI segment is most developed. With reference to data from the Eurosif 2014 barometer (pending the publication in November of the 2016 edition), France ranks second only to the United Kingdom and well ahead of Italy. According to data from Novethic, the main source of statistical data on SRI in France, responsible investment is said to have reached 746 billion euros in 2015.

Yet banks are not doing enough. Reading the FIR and Vigeo Eiris study from a negative angle, it emerges that SRI products are still far too little promoted to customers: a mere 4 per cent of respondents say they have been offered a socially responsible investment by their bank. A percentage almost identical to that of the previous year, a sign that banks have not changed their approach. A mistake, according to the Forum pour l'investissement responsable, which points out that SRI products could be the lever to restore savers' trust in banks and insurance companies — trust that one third of the sample has already lost. Small consolation: banks are still perceived by customers as the best placed to provide information on SRI, ahead of NGOs and consumer associations, public authorities and, further down the rankings, media, family and friends and, last of all, companies. At this point, it is up to them to make the next move.