Impact Shares goes to the UN
Impact Shares, the not-for-profit ETF issuer backed by the Ford Foundation, is launching an environmental ETF with help from a UN-related panel.
The Impact Shares MSCI Global Climate Select ETF (NTZO) will invest in global companies that meet MSCI's ESG screens. These screens remove alcohol, guns, tobacco and fossil fuel companies. It only allows energy companies in if they make 20% of their revenue from renewables.
The UN panel helping out is called the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. It made up of staff from the world's largest banks, fund managers and other for-profit financial companies. It claims to promote sustainable growth. It hopes to steer companies towards meeting the Paris Agreements.
NTZO's profits will be given to the United Nations Capital Development Fund, which makes lower-cost loans or grants to the world's poor.
The fund charges 0.62%.
Bernie's commentary -- charity ETFs still need AUM
These political ETFs almost always look the same. You don't get communist or socialist or deep green ecologist ETFs, for those with left wing politics. Nor do you get conservative or monarchist or libertarian ETFs for those with right wing politics.
Instead, the type of politics these ETFs espouse is almost always that that of the North American liberal elite. The body providing the funding for Impact Shares is itself a liberal foundation.
Nevertheless, if this fund is to achieve its mission of making distributions to the world's poor - surely a great aim - it has to gather assets. Its other ETF built in partnership with the UN, the Impact Shares Sustainable Development Goals Global Equity ETF (SGDA), launched in 2018, holds just $5.8M under management after three years. This is nearing the threshold for closure risk.
Let's hope this one can do a bit better.