ABRAPP supports the Amec Stewardship Code

In December last year, the Brazilian Association of Pension Funds – ABRAPP – published a letter in support of the Amec Stewardship Code, submitted by the association to its members. Click here to read ABRAPP’s letter.

Stewardship, as yet not translated into Portuguese, is the governance of institutional investors that, after becoming responsible for managing third-party funds, must comply with the fiduciary duties agreed with their clients. Institutional investors are stewards of third-party funds, they “take care” of someone else’s investments.

In its supporting letter, ABRAPP states that “it reinforces its support to the Code, recommending that not only the entities with exposure to equities adhere to it, but also the equity funds in which pension funds have stakes.”

Today, Fundação Cesp and FUNCEF are signatories to the Amec Stewardship Code. “Pension funds play a pivotal role in disseminating stewardship principles as they impact on the activities of management firms in the long term, ultimately impacting the market as a whole,” explains Mauro Rodrigues da Cunha, Amec CEO.

Stewardship principles take effect in the United States

The principles of the Investor Stewardship Group – ISG – went into effect on January 1, 2018. The group gathers large asset managers and pension funds and was formed to bring to the world’s largest capital market the approach and principles already in force in dozens of other countries regarding the role of institutional investors in the governance of invested companies.

The signatories to the principles are Blackrock, Calpers, CalSTRS, JP Morgan, MFS, Neuberger Berman, T Rowe Price, and State Street, among others. In addition to them, global fund managers not based in the United States have also become their supporters. They are Aberdeen, Robeco, Hermes, HSBC, PGGM, UBS, MN, and Newton, among others. Together, the group of signatories and supporters have approximately $ 22 trillion in assets under management.

“The ISG is advocating for communication – not a tick-the-box compliance exercise,” said Anne Sheenhan, CalSTRS Director of Corporate Governance.

For additional information, please visit https://www.isgframework.org/.

The “craze” for ethical investments has reached Japan

According to an article published by The Economist, funds invested in ESG assets grew faster in Japan than anywhere else in 2014-16. Although the total investment balance is low compared with Europe or America, it’s high for Asia. Japan’s sustainable-investment balance is $474 billion, or some 3.4% of the country’s total managed assets. The shift is driven from the top down, as a governmental guideline, rather than, as elsewhere, by ethically minded individual investors.

Click here to read the article.

South Korea’s Stewardship Code

The South Korea’s government has announced that the NPS - the South Korea National Pension Service - will actively adopt the country’s Stewardship Code after the second half of 2018. Other pension funds are planning to adhere to the code in 2019. The government will relax disclosure requirements for companies that adhere to it. The government’s goal is to provide institutional investors with the right of recommending external auditors; today, only the main lending bank or the company itself are allowed to do that.