Even the staunchest defenders of Wall Street or the City of London will admit that the asset management industry has developed something of a bad rep in the past couple of decades.
One asset management firm seeking to break the mould is UK Thames Ventures, which in May 2016 was crowned sustainable investor of the year by the International Finance Corporation and the FT.
Park Capital SA, an asset management firm based in Switzerland, believe that the firm can draw on the experiences of Thames Ventures to deliver social changes using expertise and the money of the financial services industry while keeping its ROI promise to the firm's investors.
Thames Ventures, with a portfolio that includes environmentally friendly care homes, affordable gyms in deprived urban areas and even a charity-run social enterprise for vulnerable teens, takes a "fundamentally different approach to most other investors" says co-founder Gordon Samuel and added that there need be no "trade-off between financial return and impact".
