All Special Report articles – Page 127
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Special Report
A question of competency
“Capabilities are really high, skills and competencies are quite good.” This is the outcome of an independently commissioned survey by consultants Watson Wyatt into decision-making and pension fund governance in the UK. As Professor Andrew Kakabadse from the Cranfield School of Management, who led the research, told those attending a ...
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Special Report
Exploiting the correlation
Compelling evidence is emerging that strong financial performance and sound financial management are increasingly linked. Much has been written over the past few years about the presence or absence of a relationship between the environmental and financial performance of companies. On balance, most evidence suggests that a positive relationship does ...
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Special Report
Added impetus for SRI?
The UK government has announced in its response to the consultation on principles of operation for UK pension schemes proposed by Paul Myners that it will legislate to incorporate the US ERISA principles on shareholder activism into UK law. This would make it a duty for fund managers and pension ...
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Special Report
Does institutional activism work?
The American Society of Corporate Secretaries has the motto ‘promoting excellence in corporate governance’. But this organisation has no monopoly on this laudable objective. You might well think these days that almost every other organisation in the investment industry has adopted this motto but have we gone too far. In ...
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Special Report
SRI: not high on agenda
Rather like the road to hell, the road to outperformance appears to be paved with good intentions. If the experience of socially responsible investment (SRI) in the UK is anything to go by, though, then those intentions appear somewhat half-hearted. SRI in its purest form was the exclusion of offensive ...
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Special Report
SRI is here to stay
Since July 3 last year UK pension funds have been required to state their policy on ethical investment. Three years ago, when this policy initiative was first announced by the then pensions minister, John Denham, there were very low expectations for change. Industry figures were predicting that the vast majority ...
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Special Report
US report: Defined benefit plans consolidate
The number of defined benefit (DB) plans sponsored by US corporations continues to decline, while the merging of existing plans is making it harder for newer money managers to gain a foothold in the retirement sector. In 1985, DB plans hit a peak, totaling 112,000. Less than 24,000 remain, according ...
