Coutts, the investment manager behind NatWest Invest, has outperformed its peer group* and shown its commitment to responsible investing in a world-leading, independent assessment.

The assessment, carried out by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), reviewed more than 3,500 investment managers and asset owners globally who signed up to the organisation.

Coutts achieved a score above 90 (out of 100) and five stars across all reportable sections.

Karen Ermel, Responsible Investing Director at Coutts, said that “such consistently high scores are a testament to the continuing efforts we’re making to improve our responsible investing approach”.

“Crucially, our PRI score was high across all modules, which shows that responsible investing is a core component of our investment philosophy.”

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment.

It was developed with investors, for investors and requires companies that sign up to it to report on their responsible investment activities annually for independent assessment.

Independent of any government, it encourages investors to use responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks.

“It’s important for us to get our responsible investing approach validated by external bodies such as the PRI,” says Karen. “It shows we’re putting our commitments into action.”

* The peer group has been established by the PRI and is a sub-set of the total reporting population, which includes only investment managers within Europe, with an AUM band of $10-49.99bn who submitted and were eligible to report. Coutts feels this gives a fair comparison to their closest peers in signatory type, geography and AUM. They have used the median score when comparing their assessment results, and the full unfiltered transparency report and assessment report can be found on Coutts.com.