SEC Ready To Clamp Down On ESG Investment Claims
Evidence outside of the report is available for the SEC itself, which “charged BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. for misstatements and omissions about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations in making investment decisions for certain mutual funds that it managed” on Monday, May 23rd. The agency said that between July 2018 and September 2021, the firm “represented or implied in various statements that all investments in the funds had undergone an ESG quality review, even though that was not always the case.” The SEC levied a $1.5 million fine.
“The challenge for CRE, as with many industries, will be in compliance and measurement,” Michael Moran, chief markets officer at Microshare, a provider of smart building data systems, tells GlobeSt.com. “Already, market pressures are forcing landlords to take greater notice of ESG matters, particularly carbon footprint. Now, regulators will demand empirical data to back these—often greenwashed—claims.”