Amundi Investment Institute and Crédit Agricole du Languedoc are continuing their joint work, in partnership with Montpellier Business School, to better understand individual financial behaviour and investors’ preferences for responsible investing.
To this end, a series of joint initiatives and publications has been launched:
- surveys measuring retail investors’ appetite for ESG themes;
- quantitative analysis of retail customers’ consumption and savings behaviour;
- online experiments testing different incentives for responsible investing (communication, fund presentation...).
Following the publication of a first chapter exploring retail investors’ socially responsible preferences, a second study has just been released presenting the results of a client clustering analysis. This study, based on detailed administrative data (50,000 clients) combined with survey responses (1,080 clients), segments retail investors in order to identify different dimensions of their financial behavior, notably their financial sophistication, expectations, risk aversion, preferences for socially responsible investing (SRI), as well as different characteristics of their consumption.
Clients who invest represent a minority (26%). We identify five distinct investor profiles:
- wealthy and sophisticated investors (4%);
- life insurance holders (11%);
- liquidity-oriented savers (61%);
- young consumers (16%);
- financially fragile clients (8%).
Among these groups, only the first two allocate a significant share of their portfolios to equities and SRI funds. Their motivations differ, however: wealthy investors combine financial and impact considerations, while life insurance holders are more impact-driven.
The study therefore highlights the strong heterogeneity of retail investors and shows that more differentiated offerings, together with better-tailored communications, could help meet the needs of each segment more effectively. The aim is to help financial institutions adapt their advice and products in a rapidly changing market.
