Leading independent investment consultant Redington has announced the launch of its Enhanced Stewardship Platform (ESP).
The service, underpinned by Redington’s proprietary technology platform Ada Fintech, is designed to enable asset owners to take more control of their stewardship activities and to be able to hold their investment managers to account more fully.
Asset owners are facing increasing regulatory pressure to report on, and evidence, stewardship activities. In June last year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released new guidance for pensions schemes to report against engagement and voting policies. More recently, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has stated that it will be monitoring how well pension schemes are reacting to this new guidance.
Redington’s service will enable clients to deliver fully against the stewardship aspirations of the DWP guidance and navigate an increasingly scrutinised and complex space.
Focused on three key areas – reporting, assessment and engagement – the modular service will provide:
- Aggregated reporting of engagement and voting activity across all appointed fund managers
- Assessment of quality and consistency of engagement and voting, as well as how well manager activities align with client policies and priorities
- Active engagement with fund managers to challenge and hold them to account
Redington’s sustainable investment proposition is led by Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investment Strategy, Paul Lee, and Global Head of Sustainable Investment, Anastasia Guha. Built of professionals solely dedicated to sustainable investment work, it collectively brings together more than 50 years of relevant business experience from a variety of backgrounds including policymakers and fund management houses.
On the launch of the service, Paul Lee commented: “Stewardship is one of the most powerful sustainable investment tools available to asset owners and is directly applicable to all asset classes. Yet it’s an area where asset owners remain overly reliant on their investment managers for reporting insights into areas such as engagement and voting.
“Investment managers have tended to focus on the stories they most want to tell rather than on the investments and issues that matter most to clients. Our new ESP service aims to turn this on its head and allows clients to take ownership of their stewardship reporting and assessment, removing this dependence on their managers. Through these new insights, they can challenge managers more effectively and hold them more fully to account.
“We are providing the tools to not only ensure they keep up with regulatory standards but also to tailor reporting and analysis to what matters most to them, focused on their most material holdings and the issues that they care about.”
Patrick O’Sullivan, Head of Investment Consulting at Redington, said: “Not all engagement is created equally. This is about giving asset owners the tools to understand what their managers are doing and whether it is good enough – and if it isn’t, empowering them to hold them to account and deliver the necessary messages calling for change.”
