Between rules and reality: integrity in sustainable finance

Outcomes roundtable meeting Fondsevent 2025

During the Fund Event on September 29 at ‘t Spant in Bussum, DSI led a round table discussion led by Floris Mreijen, DSI Director. The dialogue document Between the Rules – Integrity in Sustainable Finance formed the basis for this conversation with professionals from the financial sector, including asset managers, private bankers and managers in daily contact with investors.

The exchange showed that the observations from the report are clearly recognizable in practice. Whereas sustainable finance was the hot topic of conversation during the 2020-2022 period, professionals notice that conversations with clients are sometimes different during this time. With some clients, interest in responsible and sustainable investing has waned and there is more talk about achieving returns. There is also more and more talk about investing in the defense sector and to what extent these types of investments fit into a sustainable portfolio.

An important conclusion from Between the Rules is that regulations sometimes create more ambiguity than they eliminate. This was also confirmed at the table.

There was also discussion about new regulations that are coming. Although these regulations are intended to strengthen integrity and transparency, the professionals indicated that more regulations lead to more complexity and box-ticking behavior, precisely the risks identified in the dialogue document.

So the three bottlenecks from Between the Rules – managing expectations, communicating effectively and actively safeguarding – are proving undiminished. DSI continues to have this conversation to keep professionalism and integrity central to the dialogue on sustainable finance.

For more information on the dialogue document, see here.