North East Scotland Pension Fund votes own policy in State Street Global Advisors pooled fund

North East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF) is one of the first asset owners to take advantage of the emerging opportunities of pass-through voting in eligible pooled funds managed by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA).

Under the new arrangement, the £6.5 billion Pension Fund will be able to vote according to its own responsible investment values. In partnership with NESPF’s proxy adviser, PIRC, they will apply their preferred voting positions on issues such as executive pay, director elections and climate change.

The move goes live ahead of the 2025 proxy season and marks a major step forward for the asset owners’ stewardship activity. By empowering investor voting choice, SSGA is enabling NESPF to enhance its voice in the market and align its voting positions across segregated and pooled funds.

Until recently asset owners could not apply their own policies in pooled funds. However, advances in technology have enabled pass-through voting, allowing asset owners to vote in proportion to their investment.

Graham Buntain, Investment Manager at North East Scotland Pension Fund, said: “Until now we have been able to vote in our segregated mandates, but not in our pooled funds. This has meant we were unable to direct all our votes in line with our responsible investment beliefs and has led to misalignment across our investments.

That’s why we are delighted to be able to have a single, strong voice in the market by voting in our pooled funds. We welcome SSGA’s decision to facilitate voting choice and are sure that other asset owners will be seeking voting alignment across their portfolio on issues ranging from executive remuneration to ESG-related shareholder proposals.”

Alistair Byrne, Head of UK Institutional Distribution, at SSGA, said: “State Street Global Advisors’ Investor Voting Choice program is designed to offer our clients a range of options on proxy voting, and enable them to adopt policies aligned with their preferences and requirements. We are pleased that NESPF is taking advantage of this program to express their voting preferences by adopting the PIRC policy.”