FRANCE – The French reserve fund, the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites, has made progress in its move towards socially responsible investing.

It said it has selected Bfinance to assist on its forthcoming request for proposal to award active SRI mandates. This followed a selection process that was launched in March this year.

And it has asked law firm Linklaters to provide legal counsel and assistance in the drafting of various documents and legal instruments related to the aforementioned selection process.

The fund said it plans to launch the first step of this manager selection process before summer 2005.

The €19bn scheme said in March that it was looking to select consultants to help it select asset managers for SRI and private equity mandates.