Ardea Investment Management, Castlebay Investment Partners and Fiera Capital are among successful asset manager signatories to the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) UK Stewardship Code this year.
The UK Stewardship Code is a set of principles for asset owners and managers to ensure they are meeting expectations on how they are managing money on behalf of savers and pensioners and how this leads to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society.
There are now 277 signatories to the Code, representing £44.6trn assets under management. This includes 189 asset managers (68%).
Last year, around 75% of the new successful applicants are asset managers. The total number of signatories in October last year was 236, with assets under management of £40.7trn, up from £33.3trn the year before.
“It is great to see a further increase in the number of signatories to the Code, alongside the overall quality of reporting continuing to improve,” remarked Mark Babington, executive director of regulatory standards at the FRC.
The FRC also noted a growing variety of assets covered by the Code, branching out from just listed equity.
In addition, the FRC has appointed Andrea Tweedie as head of stewardship after acting as the interim head of stewardship. In this role, Tweedie will lead on stewardship policy development and the assessment of the UK Stewardship Code applicants.
“The UK Stewardship Code sets high standards for asset owners, asset managers and the service providers that support them,” Tweedie said.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the broad range of partners we engage with in further raising the bar for stewardship reporting in the UK, helping to deliver sustainable benefits for the economy, environment, and society as whole.”