Redington has launched a new enhanced stewardship platform, designed to help asset owners hold their investment managers to account on a range of ESG issues.
This service —underpinned by Redington’s proprietary technology platform Ada Fintech — will be focused on three key areas: reporting, assessment and engagement.
Redington says that the serve will help enable clients to meet new guidance from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), requiring schemes report on engagement and voting policies. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has also said it will be monitoring how well schemes are reacting to this new guidance.
Redington’s 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 head of stewardship and sustainable investment strategy Paul Lee says: “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.”
Redington head of investment consulting Patrick O’Sullivan adds: “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.”