Resources in the investment value chain have to shift away from financial modelling and trading towards stewardship and engagement according to Luba Nikulina, global head of manager research at Willis Towers Watson, speaking at the 8th Sustainable Finance Forum run by Oxford University.
Engagement and stewardship in private equity has been left out in the cold. This is strange for an asset class with high returns and where the foundation is already in place for the asset manager to act on behalf of the asset owner for strong engagement. Bob Eccles encourages more action.
Pension funds have “no business” engaging with policy makers but instead should influence change through stewardship, which is also the main function of asset managers, according to John Kay, Supernumerary Fellow in Economics at St Johns College, Oxford University.
Should investors collectively prioritise engagement issues, and if so what is at the top of the list? This was one of the topics delegates discussed at the 8th Sustainable Finance Forum run by the Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment together with The Rothschild Foundation and the KR Foundation.
The A$50 billion superannuation fund for health care professionals, HESTA, has embarked on a journey of aligning its assets with the SDGs. Measuring its current investments against chosen sustainable development goals revealed a need for standardised measurement tools.
Institutional investors are increasingly worried about investing in businesses that exploit slave workforces through their supply chains. A roundtable into modern slavery discussed how asset owners and managers can take the lead to impact the 40.3 million workers in the world suffering from some form of labour abuse.
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