Campaigns guide industry best practice

For more than 10 years conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com has brought you case studies of best practice in global investment management focusing on governance and decision making, portfolio construction and efficient portfolio management, fees and costs, and sustainable investing.

The current health and economic crisis, and the volatility of 2020, has revealed the vulnerabilities in the global economy and highlighted the need for capital to be allocated in an efficient and sustainable way. It has prompted us to think of our role in guiding the industry to best practice.

Given the changing nature of the global economy it is a good time to question whether the status quo processes and behaviours that investment professionals undertake to tackle risks and opportunities, and meet their fiduciary obligations, will be sufficient in the future.

This crisis has prompted us to be more explicit in expressing what we stand for, what we have always stood for – to be a catalyst for reformed fiduciary thinking.

You can expect the same access and detail about how CIOs from around the world are thinking about their responsibilities and allocating capital, but we will remind you of what we will be actively campaigning for to ensure the industry is allocating capital for the best possible outcomes for individuals and for the world.

This is what we stand for:

Premise: Diversity and inclusion drive better investment outcomes
Campaign: Top1000funds.com will drive diversity in the investment industry

Premise: Sustainability is a core responsibility of investors
Campaign: To campaign for sustainability to become a core part of investing for all asset owners

Premise: Principal-agent problems dominate the investment industry
Campaign: Top1000funds.com will campaign for more transparency in the institutional investment industry, more collaboration and more innovation

Premise: Costs matter
Campaign: Top1000funds.com will campaign for more efficient allocation of capital, lower fees, and more aligned investment management fees and relationships between investment managers and asset owners

An example of putting these campaigns into action is the February launch of the Global Pension Transparency Benchmark in partnership with CEM Benchmarking, which is a world first global benchmark for transparency of pension disclosure, bringing a focus to transparency in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members.

The GPTB ranks 15 countries on public disclosures of key value generation elements for the five largest pension fund organisations within each country. The overall country benchmark scores will look at four factors: governance and organization; performance; costs; and responsible investing, which are measured by assessing hundreds of underlying components.

These campaigns will also be present in the programs at our events next year including those in the first half:

·       Sustainability Digital March 9-10, 2021

·       Fiduciary Investors Symposium, May 25-26, 2021

You will hear more from us in the first quarter of 2021 about how we will be putting these campaigns  into action, and we’ll be calling on you to be part of it.

I look forward to hearing your feedback on these initiatives and working together in a bid for continuous improvement in the industry and a focus on better outcomes for stakeholders.