This morning saw the launch of our first major piece of research into the social investment marketplace. Commissioned by City of London Corporation, City Bridge Trust and Big Lottery Fund the study aims to examine the appetite among institutional investors for social investment. You can download the full report from the City of London Corporation website.  

"  There is interest in this concept. As report author Katie Hill confirmed, almost all the investors interviewed were at least interested in social investment. There is substantial demand from the client side, especially among high net worth individuals who are driving some of the private banks to produce a greater emphasis on social investment.

"  There are a number of concerns. Institutional investors are being held back by issues such as the thought of compromised returns, illiquidity and a perception that few backable propositions exist. Perhaps the most serious, though, is a lack of clear measurement regarding social impact.

"  As they're responsible for investing the money of clients, institutional investors prefer a flatter and more predictable rate of return to a proposition which might offer a higher return together with the danger of greater losses.

"  Investors are looking for large opportunities rather than the smaller scale propositions which are often available among the social enterprise sector.

If a social enterprise is to make itself attractive to this class of investor, then it needs to offer at least some of the following: more robust measurement of social impact; a more reliable indicator of expected return - ideally close to market rate - and products and managers with a strong market track record.

As the report says there is no one size fits all solution - no magic bullet. We are in this for the long haul and it will take time to develop the social investment market. However the ingredients are there in terms of client demand and the opportunities for growth.

ClearlySo CEO Rodney Schwartz echoed this optimism in his address to the audience. He argued that investors should be looking at this, not just from a moral perspective, but also from a financial. This is a sector primed for growth, and as he said, "one of the lessons I learned from my time on Wall Street". was to spot a boom or a wave when it was coming."