Why Self-Commitment Is Not Enough : On a Regulated Minimum Standard for Ecologically and Socially Responsible Financial Products and Services

Ecologically and socially responsible financial products and services are receiving considerable attention in the context of investment management and also in the public debate. While many financial service providers claim to offer ecologically and/or socially responsible financial products and services, their actual dissemination among consumers, however, appears to be rather low (see, e.g., the report by USSIF (2014) stating that the market of SRI investments is dominated by professional institutional investors with a market share of more than 85 percent). One of the main obstacles for consumers when dealing with ecologically and socially responsible financial products and services is the lack of an unambiguous understanding of what ecological and social responsibility actually means and which information they actually need to decide which products to buy or sell and which services to use (see, e.g., Bassen and Senkl 2011; Dheeriya 2017; Sheehy 2015). In this chapter, we discuss the consequences of the lack of such unambiguous understanding and provide a suggestion how to overcome this obstacle. We address this question from the point of view of individuals as consumers in the market for financial products and services. Compared to institutional market participants, consumers as, for example, retail investors or users of a broad variety of financial services are assumed to face larger difficulties in assessing financial products and services and making appropriate financial decisions (see, e.g., Oehler 2011, 2013, 2017; Oehler and Reisch 2008; Oehlerand Wendt 2017; Oehleretal. 2009). When using the term ecologically and socially responsible we are aware of the fact that some scientific publications and the public debate also refer to environmentally responsible with a meaning that we assign to the term ecologically responsible. As, however, the terms ecosystem and environment are often used interchangeably, this difference in terminology does not limit the implications of this chapter although some nuances in theoretic definition might exist