It is the role of the consultant to bring clarity and filter out the noise…and there is no


shortage of noise. Simon Rawson, ShareAction


and harmonise some of these issues. So, we are moving in the right direction, but it is worth remembering it took decades to standardise financial accounting. This is a journey. Cole: The direction of travel is critical. From a trustee’s perspec- tive, it is laudable that regulation is being channelled in one direction. It


is great that there are entities developing and pushing responsible investment products, but it is a challenge for trus- tees who do not have a financial background to sort the wheat from the chaff. Aon and other information providers help clarify that for trus- tees, but it is still through their research lens, so trustees could be missing something. So, it is difficult for trustees to get clarity as this area means dif- ferent things to different people. That is a challenge trustees have.


I am a former investment banker who used to sell products to asset managers, so in some respects I am fox-turned-game- keeper. I look to see if fund managers are signed up to the UK Sustainability Code for example. If not, why not? It is not to say that they should be, I just want to understand why they aren’t. As a trustee of small schemes, I do not have the power to


10 Feb 2022 portfolio institutional roundtable: Sustainable investing


change how asset managers run their money, but I can and believe I should ask pointed questions. Burger: They are great questions. A plethora of them come through to us, often similar but requiring uniquely different responses depending on the client.


The frameworks we are building are slightly running behind what we as investors have been asking companies to develop their reporting against. We are seeing consolidation in those reporting frameworks and that is where we need to be in the next few years. The Investment Consultants Sustainability Working Group is an initiative helping investors to the next level of reporting to provide consistency by comparing apples with apples rather than apples with oranges. Gourlay: It will happen naturally. When new regulation comes through this year, companies will have to look for metrics to report on, which should take the onus off fund managers.


Will this new regulation improve the quality and standard of reporting? Llewellyn-Waters: Harmonisation and standardisation are key to quality. It increases reliability which increases comparability.


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