Socially responsible investing

During my MBA program I had attended a conference of Asian bschools on Global Corporate Social Responsibility. We vowed to not work for companies that blatantly flout social responsibility. I would like to think I am in the business of helping people make more money. Environment friendliness probably does not go hand in hand with our business considering the realiance on paper for most things (customers want statements!)....but we do our bit to give back to society through other charity work.

Anyway the purpose of this post brought back memories of Prof Mohamed Yunus speaking at the Barclays Asia Forum ....about the financial industry devising innovative products that support social causes. Why can't we have an index purely for socially responsible stocks and mutual funds based on them? Some governments are trying to do their bit by divesting their pension funds from unethical companies that pose unacceptable risks ..case in point is the Norwegian Government Pension Fund.

Unfortunately, the irony of it all is here in this snippet from wiki - At least one mutual fund, the Vice Fund (VICEX), was created specifically to contrast with the trend in socially responsible investing. VICEX specializes in investing in the defense, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling industries, and has greatly outperformed both the S&P 500 and most socially responsible mutual funds.

Hope the readers of my blog don't note it down and go looking for their financial planners now.