The US SEC has fined Invesco Advisers $17.5m for making misleading ESG claims.

The SEC said that Invesco overstated how much of its assets were ESG related. Invesco claimed that 94% of its assets under management were ESG funds which included passive ETFs which didn’t track an ESG index.

The SEC said in a statement, “Invesco overstated the percentage of AUM that was ESG integrated because the percentage included all ETFs, irrespective of whether the ETF followed an ESG strategy. Employees proposed refining Invesco’s previously announced goal of having 100% of its AUM ESG integrated so that the goal would only pertain to actively managed strategies or ESG-specific ETFs, but that change was not made.”

The SEC also criticised Invesco for its written policies and procedures on ESG funds having failed to publish a policy defining ESG integration.

Invesco said in a statement, “The SEC order makes no allegations or findings related to disclosures about specific funds or investment strategies. Invesco has not issued public reports of firmwide ESG integration levels since late 2022. Invesco Advisers cooperated fully with the investigation and will continue to take a client-led approach of offering investment strategies tailored to the specific investment objectives of its clients.”

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