Goldman Fund Arm Rejects 36% of ESG Debt on Quality Concern (1)

The investment unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been turning away more than a third of ESG bonds after finding that the debt either poses too great a risk of outright greenwashing or doesn’t quite meet the asset manager’s sustainability expectations, according to an executive at the firm.

“When we’re looking at green, social and sustainability bonds, we’re roughly rejecting 36% of all labeled bonds going into the market,” Bram Bos, managing director overseeing green, social and impact bonds at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said Wednesday at a conference hosted by the International Capital Market Association.

“We ...