ESG funds swell in numbers despite disclosure failures

Article 8 funds doubled

The number of Article 8 funds has more than doubled in the last year, despite concerns over environmental disclosures, new research has found.

MainStreet Partner's annual ESG Barometer reported just 997 Article 8 funds in 2021, which skyrocketed to 2,248 in 2022, with 758 new funds and 555 upgrades from Article 6. While the number of Article 9 funds has remained steady since last year, there has been a rapid uptick in funds converting from Article 6 to Article 8, with the proportion of Article 6 funds dropping from 75% in 2021 to 50% in 2022. However, serious questions remain around the disclosure of Article 8 and 9 funds. Article 9 funds saw particularly poor reporting, with over 90% of funds failing to disclose environm...