Columbia Threadneedle boosts RI credentials with global social bond fund launch

Columbia Threadneedle Investments, a leading global asset management group, has launched the CT Global Social Bond Fund, available to UK investors. The fund is managed by a dedicated social bond team led by fixed income senior portfolio manager Tammie Tang, and aims to use the size of the bond market to target social outcomes in a growing global universe. The fund is the latest addition to Columbia Threadneedle’s social impact range, which includes social bond strategies focused on the UK and Europe.

Columbia Threadneedle launched the first mainstream fixed income impact investment offering in the UK in 2014, despite very few social impact labelled bonds being available in the market.

The new fund has been designed to take advantage of a developing global universe in specific use of proceeds labelled bonds that has grown to $3.5 trillion.

The fund uses Columbia Threadneedle’s existing unique and proprietary methodology to determine the suitability of bonds based on their social impact by giving each a social rating based on its focus on deprivation and clarity of impact reporting.

Using an outcomes-based approach to deliver both social and financial returns, bond issuers that make a positive social impact in seven key social development fields are identified to form a global-based social universe of over 6,000 bonds. Outcomes are mapped to the underlying 169 targets of the 17 UN sustainable development goals.