Partner Joshua Margolin is quoted in an article from International Financing Review about German prosecutors’ raid on DWS, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank. The prosecutors are investigating allegations of “greenwashing”—disinformation shared by an organization to promote an environmentally responsible public image.
“It is just another major step towards making ESG disclosures as regulated and clear for investors as disclosures of profit and loss,” said Margolin about the potential impact of the investigation.
As Margolin indicated, this investigation is seen by some Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) specialists as a critical step in making the financial services industry take ESG reporting and data quality more seriously. US regulators launched an investigation into DWS last year alongside the separate probe by Germany’s financial regulator BaFin. DWS has denied wrongdoing since the launch of these investigations, but has since changed its ESG criteria.
