ERAFP, the French mandatory pension scheme for civil servants, has tendered two mandates for ESG rating agencies to assess the pension fund’s investments against its socially responsible investment (SRI) policy.
The call for tender is a renewal of existing mandates.
The €23.5bn fund is looking to hire two “extra-financial rating agencies to assess the social responsibility of ERAFP’s investments in various asset classes”.
One mandate is in relation to equity and corporate bond investments made on behalf of ERAFP, which the selected rating agency would need to assess against their compliance with the pension fund’s SRI guidelines.
A second mandate is for the same type of assessment but for investments mainly in sovereign, supranational and sub-sovereign bonds (SSA).
The contracts will be for four years, with a possible extension of two years.
Vigeo and Oekom Research – ratings agencies from France and Germany, respectively – have been responsible for this work since October 2010, when ERAFP last awarded the relevant mandates.
Vigeo was selected for the equity and corporate bond assessment, while Oekom was chosen as a partner with respect to ERAFP’s SSA bond investments.
Vigeo merged with EIRIS, a UK ESG agency, late last year.
In other news, AFG, the French asset management association, has published a practical guide for asset managers to measure and report on their investments’ carbon footprint.
In the guide (French only), the association notes that, although not all asset managers measure the carbon footprint of fund portfolios, this practice is set to spread given growing interest from clients and improvements in methodology.
It also “strongly advises” asset managers to state clearly the limits of any figures reported given the wide range of calculation methods.
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