Morningstar ESG ratings available via HUB24

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

24 January 2023

Morningstar’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings system, Sustainalytics, has now become available on the HUB24 platform, providing financial advisers with information on managed funds and Australian listed securities.

The ranking system places the selected funds and other listed securities on a “sliding scale of risk” and indicates whether it has been certified by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), delivering data-enabled insights and statistics to guide advisers’ investment decisions.

“There is growing demand by consumers for transparency around responsible investments and our role is to provide solutions which enable advisers to support their clients to meet their individual investment preferences,” HUB24 chief executive, Andrew Alcock, said.

“We’re in a unique position to empower better financial futures for Australians so offering a broad range of investment options and insights on the HUB24 platform enables advisers to support their clients in making informed investment decisions.

“Through our collaboration with Morningstar and RIAA, we’re able to offer solutions that give advisers visibility over how well ESG risk is managed or considered so they can engage with their clients to find investments that align with their values.”

The new function allows advisers to customise their investment methods and better meet clients’ individual ESG or responsible investment standards.

“With more investors increasingly integrating sustainability considerations into their investment decisions we’re delighted to make available the Morningstar Sustainalytics data on the HUB24 platform,” Morningstar Managing Director, Jamie Wickham, said.

“Each of our methodologies give advisers better visibility over how Australian listed companies and funds manage ESG.”

RIAA chief executive Simon O’Connor also said consumer research conducted by the association found 64 per cent of Australian investors expected financial advisers to be “knowledgeable” about the myriad of responsible investment options available.

“By making RIAA certification available on the HUB24 platform, advisers can build their knowledge and understanding, easily determining whether a fund has been certified by us and adheres to the strict operational and disclosure practices required to meet our Responsible Investment Standard,” he said.