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Responsible Investing

Vanguard in more hot water with Aussie watchdog

Wednesday 26th of July 2023

The regulator alleges misleading conduct over some of the ESG exclusionary screens in Vanguard’s Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index (Hedged) fund.  The fund comprises the ETF, AUD hedged, and NZD hedged classes of units.

ASIC is accusing Vanguard of representing all securities in the fund as being screened against certain ESG criteria. The fund was marketed to investors seeking, amongst other things, securities with an ethically conscious screen.

The fund was based on the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Global Aggregate SRI Exclusions Float Adjusted Index Index, which Vanguard claimed excluded issuers with significant business activities in a range of industries, including fossil fuels.

But Vanguard did not conduct research over a significant proportion of bond issuers in the index and therefore the fund. 

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