The ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund: a sustainability strategy 

As a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment, the ING group is firmly intent on positioning itself as a player in the sphere of sustainable investment products. The ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds fund fits into this approach, by focusing on the green, social and sustainable bonds of the best issuers in terms of ESG practices. The investment process combines traditional selection criteria (analysis of the risk-return profile, fundamentals of the company, etc.) with an analysis of the sustainable aspects based on a two-tier approach:

at issuer level: application of positive and negative filters to define the pool of issuers considered sustainable.

at instrument level: selection of the appropriate bond instrument from issuers filtered further up the line with a bias towards green, social and sustainable bonds.

“Transition to a sustainable economy requires the mobilisation of huge amounts of funding.  Our objective is to continue our efforts to redirect investments to projects and products with a concrete environmental and social benefit”, said Gaëtan Salerno, Portfolio Manager at ING. “The ING Aria Sustainable Bonds Fund is managed dynamically in Luxembourg, and incorporates these environmental, social and governance criteria throughout its investment process”.

Sachin Vankalas, General Director of LuxFLAG: “We are pleased to announce that, the ING ARIA Sustainable Bonds has been granted the use of LuxFLAG ESG Label for a period starting on 01 October 2019 and ending on 30 September 2020. The LuxFLAG ESG Label is recognized for its high standards and rigorous assessment of applicant investment funds’ investment strategy, ESG integration into the investment process as well as an affirmation of their transparency to investors which are all key components of the Eligibility Criteria of LuxFLAG ESG Label”.

ING and sustainable investment

As a financial institution, we play a role by financing change, sharing our knowledge and exerting our influence. Being sustainable means reducing our impact, and this is a choice that we make, for example, as an investor and through the services we offer to our clients.

Furthermore, ING and the European Investment Bank (EIB) recently made EUR 400 million available to finance sustainable investments by business enterprises in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Sustainability and society’s resilience to climate change are an inherent part of ING’s purpose: to give people the means to stay one step ahead in their lives and in their business. Obtaining the LuxFLAG label is in line with this perspective.