United Sustainable Credit Income Fund

There is scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming and it will get worse, leading to greater frequency of extreme weather events. As global warming is tackled in the coming decades, investors will need to know what to invest in – and what to avoid. This ranges from multi-billion dollar projects harnessing renewable energy to new business models in traditional industries such as car manufacturing, utilities and energy.

Global inequality has fallen over the past 30 years but risen sharply within countries due to a number of factors such as globalisation, technology and immigration. Rising inequality within countries can result in social and political unrest, leading to more volatile and lower investment returns, and less attractive investment opportunities. Countries with more significant levels of inequality are also considered to have inferior sovereign credit quality³.

Lower levels of inequality (as illustrated by the Gini coefficient) correspond with lower risk premiums and potential for unrest (as represented by sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) spreads and the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index, respectively), even though inequality is not the only explanatory factor³.

As societies and economies become more digitised and connected, cybercrime has risen at an unprecedented rate. A 2017 study by Credit Suisse showed that the annual cost of cybercrime has reached about USD $500 billion, extracting roughly 15-20% of the internet’s annual economic value. Accelerated growth in data generation and data traffic provide cybercriminals with access to an ever-expanding number of human and digital targets³.

In response, spending on cybersecurity has grown rapidly, providing ample investment opportunities in cybersecurity businesses. Investors can play a vital role in cybersecurity by directing funds to companies that actively innovate and adopt proper measures to minimise the threat of cyberattacks³.