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Franklin Templeton joins SASB investor group

News Team, 23/05/2019

Franklin Templeton has joined the Investor Advisory Group (IAG) of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a non-profit organisation that develops standards for businesses looking to communicate financially-credible sustainability information to investors.

In November 2018, SASB published a set of 77 sustainability accounting standards, to enable businesses to recognise sustainability issues that matter most to financial performance, with an industry-specific focus. The standards look to place an emphasis on financial materiality and communication to investors.

The organisation established IAG, which consists of a selection of asset owners and managers aiming to enhance the quality of sustainability-related disclosures across the investment sector, in late 2016. It was created to provide SASB with feedback and express investor support for market-standardised sustainability disclosures.

With Franklin Templeton’s arrival, IAG now represents the views of 44 firms worldwide that account for than $33 trillion in assets under management.

Madelyn Antoncic, CEO at SASB said the addition of Franklin Templeton’s head of ESG to IAG highlighted the growing level of importance institutional investors attached to understanding sustainability issues in global markets.

She said: “We welcome Julie Moret, head of ESG at Franklin Templeton, to this important group that provides valuable feedback and guidance to SASB. The interest of the world’s leading institutional investors in SASB’s standards shows that better understanding of sustainability-related risk and opportunity is a crucial concern across global capital markets.”

Ms Moret added that Franklin Templeton supported SASB’s efforts to create sustainable accounting standards across the industry.

She said: “We are delighted to serve as members of SASB’s IAG to further support the industry’s efforts to promote corporate disclosure on financially material, decision-useful information to investors. Franklin Templeton is a strong supporter of SASB’s work in establishing a market-based set of sustainability accounting standards that have been created collaboratively with industry and investors, representing industry specificity and comparability across industries.”

Franklin Templeton more than 600 investment professionals and employees in over 30 countries, who are supported by a worldwide team of risk management professionals and a global trading desk network. The California-based company has over $720 billion in assets under management and more than 70 years of investment experience.

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