Aug 25 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are investigating German lender Deutsche Bank’s asset-management arm DWS Group after the firm’s former head of sustainability said it overstated how much it used sustainable investing criteria to manage its assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The probes, by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, are in early stages, the newspaper saidhere, citing sources.
Deutsche Bank and a spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment on the WSJ report.
The SEC did not respond immediately to request for comment.
The agency earlier this year here established a task force to root out misconduct related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. With a record $51 billion flooding into sustainable U.S. funds in 2020 alone, according to Morningstar, investors need to be better informed, the SEC has said.