Responsible Finance Summit gets support from leading ‘ESG quant' fund manager

Summit's inclusive and global focus attracts sustainable asset management firm with unique approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 15 February 2016: The Responsible Finance Summit is proud to announce support by Arabesque Partners, a sustainable asset management firm renowned for its quantitative approach to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Arabesque's investment practices and thought leadership strongly overlaps with the Summit's efforts to make responsible finance more inclusive and to support the global integration of Islamic finance and traditional responsible finance.

Since the financial crisis, sustainability-focused investment practices have grown exponentially as the crisis experience exposed the true costs of socially detrimental business practices.  Arabesque has produced world-class research and expanded the knowledge base to identify the performance enhancing impacts of sustainability that can also be supportive of the burgeoning Islamic finance industry.

Speaking ahead of the Summit, Omar Selim, CEO of Arabesque, said: “ESG factors are indeed a force for good (in impacts and returns) and a quantitative approach supports efforts to bring it to the wider market. Arabesque is leading the way for ESG data to become more widely used in emerging markets and the Responsible Finance Summit is the ideal platform to make the responsible finance industry more inclusive and globally integrated.”

The CEO of RFI Foundation, Blake Goud, said: “The Summit's focus on bringing traditional responsible finance approaches like ESG together with Islamic finance will benefit greatly from Arabesque's support.  Efforts by the financial sector, particularly in emerging markets, to increase the positive impact it has by aligning with their stakeholders' values is supported by quality research like the research from Arabesque and we are excited to have their support”.

The Responsible Finance Summit will take place at Sasana Kijang, a renowned center for knowledge and learning excellence established by Bank Negara Malaysia.  It is organised by the RFI Foundation, hosted by Bank Negara and co-organised by Middle East Global Advisors.  For more information on the Summit, please visit rf-summit.com. Join the conversation on responsible finance #RFS2016 @RFIFoundation