ESG investing appears to be all the rage but a large number of private bankers aren't yet fully educated about it. Standard Chartered aims to fill the gap.

Private bankers at Standard Chartered are being educated on the expanding world of sustainable investing, tapping into e-learning materials provided by the asset management house Robeco.

The development comes at a time when environmental, social and governance-themed investing (ESG) has progressed from being a fringe concern for idealists to an increasingly mainstream business focus.

Robeco said research has shown that as recently as October last year, a poll of relationship managers at firms showed that two-thirds have not been trained on the area of ESG in the past 12 months.

Robeco and StanChart will offer “Robeco Sustainability Investing Essentials to employees at the private bank in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and the UK". The Robeco programme was originally launched last October.

The training programme explains what sustainability investing is, challenges misconceptions about the field, examines performance and runs through case studies. Participants are tested and work goes towards their continuous professional development (CPD) accreditation. Robeco Sustainability Investing Essentials is recognised by the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore’s Financial Training Scheme (FTS).

“Sustainability investing is here to stay and will continue to grow. We do, however, see there is a need for education on this topic in Asia,” Tom Keenan, head of wholesale Asia ex-Japan at Robeco, said.