Home
About us
Projects
Publications
Newsletters
Conferences
Media
News
Contact
Search
Login
News
Search
Sign up for Newsletter
27 April 2009
Business Scotsman: HBOS and RBS pension schemes under fire over lack of transparency
Source: www.business.scotsman.com
Published Date:
27 April 2009
By Scott Reid
Deputy Business Editor
PENSION schemes run by banking giants HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland have come under fire for a lack of investment transparency.
Research released today by FairPensions, a campaign body for "responsible investment", includes a performance "league table" of the UK's 30 largest pension schemes, together worth an estimated £350 billion and covering almost five million members.
The study reveals a wide variation between the apparent performance of major pension schemes in terms of managing non-financial risks, such as irresponsible lending and climate change, in companies in their portfolios and in transparency about their actions as shareholders.
Strathclyde Pension Fund is placed third out of 30 in the survey, scoring 90 per cent, while the RBS Group pension fund, at joint 19th, scores just 23 per cent and the HBOS final salary pension scheme, with a 17th place ranking, gains 28 per cent.
FairPensions, which is supported by a number of charities and trade unions, said all three schemes had statements recognising the potential impact of environmental, social or corporate governance issues on financial performance.
But it claimed the RBS scheme did not show evidence of assessing the ability of fund managers to manage those risks or of requiring a regular report on what is being done to manage the risks.
According to today's report, the HBOS scheme did not show evidence of recognising environmental, social and governance risks in its investment management agreements with fund managers.
The Strathclyde pension scheme is said to have fulfilled all of these criteria.
Meanwhile, on public transparency criteria, the Strathclyde scheme scored 95 per cent, HBOS 7.5 per cent, and RBS, rather damningly, zero per cent.
Richard McIndoe, head of pensions at Strathclyde Pension Fund, said the scheme's high ranking reflected "the commitment and effort we continue to devote to responsible investment".
News
12 January 2011
Responsible-Investor: WWF funds arm partners with Cheuvreux to launch Green Tech index: Amundi licenses ETF
12 January 2011
SRI-Adviser: Smaller Companies Lagging in Climate Change Reporting
11 January 2011
SocialFunds: Report Describes Impact Investing as an Alternative Asset Class
11 January 2011
Responsible-Investor: Clean Investor, January 11: ATP-linked venture firm in cleantech investment
10 January 2011
SRI-Adviser: RepRisk Names Most Environmentally and Socially Controversial Companies of 2010
10 January 2011
Responsible-Investor: UK Environment Agency awards £80m emerging markets mandate
7 January 2011
SocialFunds: EU Will Meet Renewable Energy Targets for 2020
6 January 2011
SRI-Adviser: Advance Chapter of Report on Gulf Disaster Is Released
5 January 2011
SocialFunds: CalPERS' Majority Vote Initiative Results in 20 Companies Adopting the Standard
4 January 2011
SRI-Adviser: Top Sustainable Investment Stories of 2010
[
1
][
2
][
3
][
4
][
5
][
6
][
7
][
8
][
9
][
10
][
11
][
12
][
13
][
14
][
15
][
16
][
17
][
18
][
19
][
20
][
21
][
22
][
23
][
24
][
25
][
26
][
27
][
28
][
29
][
30
][
31
][
32
][
33
][
34
][
35
][
36
][
37
][
38
][
39
][
40
][
41
][
42
][
43
][
44
][
45
][
46
][
47
][
48
][
49
][
50
][
51
][
52
][
53
][
54
][
55
][
56
][
57
][
58
][
59
][
60
][
61
][
62
][
63
][
64
][
65
][
66
][
67
][
68
][
69
][
70
][
71
][
72
][
73
][
74
][
75
][
76
][
77
][
78
][
79
][
80
][
81
][
82
][
83
][
84
][
85
][
86
][
87
][
88
][
89
][
90
][
91
][
92
][
93
][
94
][
95
][
96
][
97
][
98
][
99
][
100
][
101
][
102
][
103
][
104
][
105
][
106
][
107
][
108
][
109
][
110
][
111
][
112
][
113
][
114
][
115
][
116
][
117
][
118
][
119
][
120
][
121
][
122
][
123
][
124
][
125
][
126
][
127
][
128
][
129
][
130
][
131
][
132
][
133
][
134
][
135
][
136
]
Sustainable Investment Research Platform
Provided by Webforum