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
28 July 2010
Responsible-Investor: RI Briefing, July 28: Legg Mason, UNCTAD, BNP Paribas, Ethos
28 July 2010
Responsible-Investor: ISS wary of disclosing voting recommendations
27 July 2010
SRI-Adviser: Investors Lead Way on Climate Change As Senate Fails to Act
27 July 2010
Responsible-Investor: MSCI and the RiskMetrics branding mystery
26 July 2010
SocialFunds: Investors Address Human Rights in Electronics Supply Chains
24 July 2010
SRI-Adviser: The Corporate Library and GovernanceMetrics International Announce Merger
23 July 2010
SocialFunds: Will 2011 Be a Watershed Year for Corporate Governance?
22 July 2010
SRI-Adviser: Mutual Funds Continue to Support Management on Executive Compensation
21 July 2010
SocialFunds: Extractive Industries Will Be Required to Disclose Payments to Governments
21 July 2010
Responsible-Investor: UK: stewardship elusive as pension funds buck governance code
[
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