IA and PLSA form stewardship steering group

The Investment Association and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) have joined forces to launch a new steering group to examine how stewardship and a focus on long-term investment can be better integrated into the investment process.

It is hoped the group – which will be co-chaired by PLSA chair, Richard Butcher, and global head of investment governance and oversight at Standard Life Aberdeen, Archie Struthers – will help create sustainable value for savers and investors.

The group, which held its inaugural meeting in January, brings together asset owners, investment managers and other relevant stakeholders to consider a range of issues aimed at strengthening the relationship between asset owners and investment managers.

Those include the role investment manager disclosures play in the information flow between investment managers and asset owners in their approach to stewardship, and how asset owners can ensure stewardship plays a key role in their approach to manager selection.

Struthers said: “Asset managers must meet, and evidence how we are meeting, the increasing expectations of savers to manage their money in a responsible way. In short, our mandate to operate is dependent on us demonstrating our commitment to responsible stewardship.”