Cushon has appointed Veronica Humble to be its new chief investment officer.
Humble joins from Legal and General Investment Management where she was head of DC investment strategy, responsible for investments, product development and ESG initiatives within the DC business.
Humble was also a member of the L&G Master Trust Investment Committee and an investment expert for LGIM’s DC clients.
This appointment comes at a period for growth for Cushon, following its acquisition by NatWest Group last year. The workplace pensions and savings fintech has itself acquired a number of master trust providers in recent years, which it is in the process of integrating into its business.
In January this year the company completed its consolidation of the former Workers Pension Trust into the Cushon Master Trust – the first intra-group merger of an acquired master trust, since the master trust authorisation regime was introduced.
Cushon says that Humble will apply her extensive quantitative and analytical skills and experience in the DC market to define and lead Cushon’s investment strategy as its looks to cement itself as both a major player in the UK DC market and leading ESG provider.
Like other pension providers Cushon has put an emphasis on decarbonisation, announcing in October last year a target to achieve an 80 per cent reduction in the scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions financed by the growth phase of its default fund by 30 September 2030 — compared to its independently verified industry benchmark of 118 tCO2e/$m invested. It has already achieved a 64 per cent reduction against the benchmark and is targeting a 7 per cent annual reduction between now and 2030. This replaces its earlier ‘net zero now’ policy which heavily relied on carbon offsets.
The company has also become a signatory to the Mansion House Compact, a voluntary expression of intent by DC pension funds to allocate at least 5 per cent of their default funds to unlisted equities by 2030.
Cushon master trust strategic adviser Julius Pursaill says: “Having previously served as acting CIO for Cushon, I’m delighted that we are further strengthening the resources in our investment office and I’m looking forward to working with Humble in her new role, as an adviser to the investment office, to Cushon and NatWest more broadly.”
Cushon CIO Veronica Humble says: “Cushon’s investment proposition is one of the most interesting in the UK market, and an industry leader in decarbonising the sector. I’m looking forward to bringing my skills and experience to this role to further develop Cushon’s proposition and to show that meaningful carbon reductions can be made at pace while still maintaining diversity in an investment portfolio to achieve investment goals.”
