Among the highlights, the survey found that 68% of high-net-worth (HNW) investors in Asia now want to help create a better future through sustainable investing.
These HNW investors are also planning to increase the allocation in sustainable investments to almost 20% of their portfolio.
This year’s survey by StanChart continued to track the behaviour of three sustainable investor archetypes – Altruists, Value Seekers and Unengaged – in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
While Value Seekers remained the dominant sustainable investor type at 66%, there is a trend of growing social conscience across the three archetypes as 81% of Altruists and 63% of Value Seekers chose “Create a better future” as their top motivation.
In addition, Altruistic investors were most motivated by energy and climate issues (22%), while Value Seekers were most motivated by health and education goals (12%).
Within the Altruists and Value Seekers, StanChart also uncovered a new sub-category of Aspirants – investors who claimed to be engaged in sustainable investing, but have not yet started.
Investors’ knowledge about sustainable investing also continued to improve. Almost 30% of investors could correctly define what it was, up from 20% a year ago.
Similar to last year, Singapore continued to have the highest number of HNW investors in Asia who were knowledgeable, at 43%. Investors in China and Hong Kong investors who understood the concept also rose to 18% and 27%, respectively from a year ago.
Some 41% of the Unengaged and 40% of the Aspirants cited “Lack of information about sustainable investing opportunities” for not engaging in sustainable investing.
Overall, 46% of investors felt that a “Demonstrated track record of positive financial returns” would help increase their engagement with sustainable investing.
