(Bloomberg) -- Corners of Europe’s fund industry have been routinely touting their ESG credentials without providing documentation, fueling fresh concerns about greenwashing, the bloc’s markets regulator said.

Marketing communication for ESG products and services is largely generic, and social media posts about ostensibly green initiatives that lack proof are “common,” according to the European Securities and Markets Authority. Its findings were published in a review of more than 200 banks and asset managers and that spanned two years.

“ESMA is concerned by the non-compliant examples” identified by the national authorities with which the regulator worked on its review, it said. Such practices give potential investors “misleading impressions that the products, services or brand in question are ESG oriented in cases in which they are not.”

According to the ESMA report, banks and asset managers have claimed that funds they sold had positive environmental or social impacts, better returns and lower volatility, without substantiating their claims. 

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