Investors ranked a governance factor as the most important

When thinking about environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it’s often environmental that are most prominently portrayed in the media. We regularly see images of wind farms or lush green forests, alongside articles and marketing materials discussing ESG.

However, when we asked investors to rank 21 criteria across the three categories it was actually a governance factor, honest and transparent accountancy, that was ranked the most important/vital ESG factor in 10 of the 11 markets surveyed.

The only exception was Germany, where data protection and cybersecurity was ranked top, with transparent accounting coming in a close second.

The country that had the highest ranking for transparent accounting was the Philippines, where 93% of investors stated it was an important or vital factor for them.