Sustainable investing being made more easy and accessible

Sustainable investing being made more easy and accessible
BinckBank is the first bank in the Netherlands to launch Morningstar Sustainability Rating

Amsterdam, 4 July 2017 - Sustainable investing is getting even easier through BinckBank. As the first bank for retail investors in the Netherlands, BinckBank adds the unique Morningstar Sustainability Rating to hundreds of investment funds and ETFs.

For investors of Binck Fundcoach and Alex Self Investing, it is possible to select funds at a glance based on a unique sustainability score, which can range from one to five rating globes.

"More and more investors are willing to invest more sustainable," says Jeroen Sonsma, director of Binck Nederland. "With this sustainability rating method,  it will be much easier to find and compare sustainable investment opportunities. In addition, more than one hundred funds offered by us score in the top two categories. "

The Sustainability Rating is based on the sustainability of the underlying companies in which the funds invest. Morningstar determines a score for as much as 35,000 funds worldwide. In addition to environmental performance, it also looks at social and governance factors.

According to Steven Smit, Director Sustainability at Morningstar, sustainable investment is also rewarding. "Investors get influence by deliberately choosing companies that act in a responsible way for the environment, people and governance. In addition, research shows that sustainable funds achieve comparable or even better returns than other investments. "

The Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) also welcomes co-operation between BinckBank and Morningstar - both for years as a member of the association. "In this way, retail investors are supported to make better investment decisions for their sustainable investments," says VBDO Director Angélique Laskewitz. "In addition, this emphasizes the increased interest in sustainable funds."

Increase of sustainable investors
A recent analysis by BinckBank shows that the number of sustainable investors has grown lately. Approximately 45 percent of the private investors, at the present time, considered to invest a portion of the portfolio in a sustainable way.

In addition, four out of ten investors want to invest (more) in a short term. A large group therefore needed to have a good measure of quality to better recognize and select sustainable investments.

About BinckBank N.V.
BinckBank is the largest independent Dutch online bank for investors and savers. BinckBank offers services to retail investors and independent asset managers in terms of savings (Saving) Investing (Investing) and trading (Trading), via its European ICT-basis platform. BinckBank is listed on Euronext Amsterdam as an independent online bank with offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. BinckBank serves more than 614,000 account holders with assets under administration of
€ 22.7 billion and assets under management of € 1.3 billion by December 31, 2016. BinckBank was formed in 2000 and employs 642 FTEs.