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llianceBernstein (AB) is proud to have been accepted as a signatory to the UK StewardshipCode for the fourth consecutive year. The Code sets high stewardship standards for those investing money on behalf of UK savers and pensioners, and those that support them.
The previous version of the StewardshipCode, adopted in 2020, defined stewardship as the creation of long-term value for clients and beneficiaries, leading to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society. Battlelines drawn The consultation on the new StewardshipCode concluded on 19 February.
The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has moved to reduce reporting burdens and streamline processes for signatories through a revamp of its StewardshipCode. We’re really aware that the StewardshipCode doesn’t exist and operate in isolation, but that we are part of a wider regulatory framework,” she underlined.
A review of the UK StewardshipCode 2020 should prompt evolution rather than revolution, according to industry experts, who want to see refinement aimed at further improving outcomes. The post UK StewardshipCode to Benefit from Fine-tuning appeared first on ESG Investor.
Andrea Tweedie, Head of Stewardship at the Financial Reporting Council, highlights progress to date and calls for ‘good, bad and ugly’ feedback ahead of the upcoming review. The new codes substantially raised expectations for how money is invested on behalf of UK savers and pensioners,” said Tweedie.
Investors have been asked to support linking investment stewardship to the creation of 'long-term sustainable value' in the UK StewardshipCode, in an alternative definition to 'watered-down' proposals by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has cut reporting requirements of the UK StewardshipCode, to "provide clarity on areas signatories outlined as challenging to address, reduce the volume of reporting and provide flexibility for signatories in defining how they undertake stewardship".
Regulation will boost fund naming consistency and disclosures but more work is needed to ensure EU rules impact the real economy, speakers told a webinar hosted by Environmental Finance. Michael Hurley reports
Here, stewardshipcodes can play a vital role in addressing these different types of relationships to help shape modern expectations on institutional investors. These codes provide guidance and expectations on investors’ engagement with investee companies and other stakeholders to promote long-term value.
Changes to the UK's "gold-standard" StewardshipCode are set to make it too "open-ended" for Nest to ascertain whether fund managers are meeting the pension fund's expectations, it argued.
The removal of some reporting requirements under the UK StewardshipCode to reduce the reporting burden on signatories must not lead to weakened regulatory scrutiny of reporting, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has been told.
Changes to the UK StewardshipCode to remove a requirement to report annually on collaborative engagement and escalation may have been designed to assuage fears particularly among US managers at violating antitrust laws, it has been suggested.
In 2015, the group also submitted its first application to the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) UK StewardshipCode. “An An approved StewardshipCode status is basically a baseline entry to pitch for institutional business around responsible investment,” Crossman explained.
UK r egulator aims to address gaps in collaborative engagement in upcoming review of the StewardshipCode. We must avoid well-intentioned but meaningless disclosure and focus on what’s important.
Best practice As a Financial Conduct Authority-regulated asset manager, LPPI has maintained its UK StewardshipCode signatory status for the past three years. Deakin is a strong advocate of the code. The StewardshipCode is currently under review , with the new version expected in early 2025.
“Two sides of the same coin” During the consultation on the UK Corporate Governance Code, stakeholders also raised concerns about the UK StewardshipCode, the FRC said in its statement. The UK StewardshipCode has over 250 signatories, including UK pension schemes Brunel Pension Partnership and Railpen.
The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has downgraded the words 'environment and society' in a redefinition of stewardship under proposed updates to the country's StewardshipCode.
Transparency on corporates’ decarbonisation strategies could require review of SRD II or introduction of European stewardshipcode. Europe’s regulatory framework should be adjusted to better support shareholder engagement efforts and give investors more oversight of portfolio companies’ climate transition progress, according to industry experts. (..)
“Asset owners in Germany and Belgium were basically following the asset managers’ lead on stewardship, as there is not much pressure applied on them to exert influence,” he said. “It The code is voluntary, but many institutional investors have signed up to it as a way of demonstrating their commitment to responsible investment.
The StewardshipCode says a measure of your engagement quality is case studies. Lewis said research is planned on the impact or correlation of its engagement on companies’ climate policies and transition plans. “The series will look at how we can measure our engagement in different ways. That is one way.
Has your asset manager published a UK StewardshipCode statement? If your asset manager is a signatory to the UK StewardshipCode, then this insight is more likely to be central to their investment approach. The UK StewardshipCode sets high stewardship standards for asset managers.
Asset owner makes progress on climate and asset manager information-sharing in first year as StewardshipCode signatory. Last year, Phoenix also became a signatory of the Financial Reporting Council’s UK StewardshipCode. Piani described the code as being “pivotal” to the development of the firm’s engagement strategy. “It
Areas to be covered include the effectiveness of the FRC’s StewardshipCode in creating a market for stewardship, interaction between the code and existing stewardship-related rules in the FCA Handbook , and stewardship-related issues raised in the UK government’s updated Green Finance Strategy , released in March.
I assume that the aim of the latest review is to examine ongoing issues around fiduciary duty, especially in the context of the revised UK StewardshipCode 2020, to see what obstacles (real or perceived) remain.” The paper notes that the UK StewardshipCode is “guidance and not a legal obligation”.
“This is a significant hiring slowdown, perhaps indicating that stewardship and engagement is an area that managers are willing to cut as they face more challenging times financially,” the report mentioned.
This was followed in 2010 by high level reporting for the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) original StewardshipCode. In the UK this coincided with an updating of StewardshipCode reporting requirements and TCFD reporting for pension funds becoming mandatory.”
In the final quarter of 2023, the FRC – working with the FCA, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and The Pensions Regulator – will review the regulatory framework for effective stewardship, including the operation of the StewardshipCode.
AIST also said if APRA is encouraging disclosure of stewardship activity, it should provide guidance on the appropriate level of disclosure, noting, “better practice is likely to involve disclosure in line with an existing stewardshipcode”.
A 2019 study of the stewardship activities of the big three index fund managers – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street – found that there was no engagement with 90% of investee companies over three years, with a further 5% of firms experiencing a single engagement.
Trustees should exert their influence over asset managers and investee companies to ensure they are “walking the walk” in terms of adapting their business models to net zero objectives, she said, including encouraging managers to sign up to the UK StewardshipCode.
The introduction of a toughened code has led to improved governance and resourcing of stewardship by UK-based asset managers and owners, but investment in the area faces ongoing challenges, including tensions with other staff. .
If you look at stewardshipcodes across the world, they touch on resources as being a key element, but without explicitly giving out guidance on how organisations can report and which resources are required,” Jessica Gao, Director of Research at the TAI, told ESG Investor.
While reporting remains important to demonstrate that signatories are meeting the PRI principles and for global benchmarking, parallel requirements exist under stewardshipcodes and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure. “Now there’s a plethora of those – both mandatory and voluntary.”
ShareAction called on regulators to develop and enforce mandatory stewardship rules for asset managers and owners, noting the positive contribution to performance and disclosure made by the UK StewardshipCode 2020 and Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
A recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) discussion paper asked for feedback on possible regulatory change needed to support collaborative engagement and systemic stewardship, while the Financial Reporting Council is due to lead a review of its StewardshipCode. Also speaking at the Stewardship Summit, Mark Manning , Strategic Policy Advisor on (..)
In 2020, the FSA tightened the StewardshipCode to redefine responsibilities and explicitly instruct institutional investors “to consider sustainability (medium- to long-term sustainability including ESG factors) according to their investment management strategies in the course of their constructive engagement with investee companies”.
Definition and evaluation The strategy confirmed that the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) , alongside the DWP, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR), will be reviewing the UK’s whole regulatory framework for effective stewardship in Q4, including the operation of the StewardshipCode. As well as considering whether (..)
The authors suggested that this could be due to the fact pension funds collectively hold a smaller proportion of total institutional shareholdings in individual firms, so their influence over corporate governance is therefore more limited. .
If you look at stewardshipcodes across the world, they touch on resources as being a key element, but without explicitly giving out guidance on how organisations can report and which resources are required,” Jessica Gao, Director of Research at the TAI, told ESG Investor.
It instead noted that policies should “consistently promote the appropriate use of stewardship by investors as part and parcel of discharging their duties”.
For sustainable investment professionals, reporting against the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) or the Task Force on Climate-related Financia Disclosures, stewardshipcode disclosures, and standardised, comparable corporate reporting are now part of the day job. Policy takers and policy shapers.
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