Fairshare Educational Foundation
Trowbray House
108 Weston Street
London SE1 3QB
020 7403 7800
fairpensions.org.uk
Short term profiteering makes City middlemen rich and puts our pensions at risk,
according to new report.
A report, launched today by FairPensions, highlights the stark difference in the fortunes
of asset managers responsible for managing our savings and the millions of pension
savers in the UK. FairPensions’ report calls for legal and policy reforms to give stronger
protection to savers.
Christine Berry, author of the report, said today: “From 2000-2009, pension investment
returns collapsed to 1.1% per year while funds' payments to middlemen, such as asset
managers and consultants, rose by more than 50%. Against this backdrop people must be
asking whether or not those managing pensions have savers’ best interests at heart.”
The report by FairPensions, a charity which campaigns for Responsible Investment and
transparency in finance, focuses on ‘fiduciary obligation’- the strict duties investors
have to the people whose money they manage.
The report goes on to explain that ‘fiduciary obligation’ has been used as a smokescreen
to promote short-term profit making over long-term sustainable investment. With autoenrolment into pension schemes coming on stream from 2012 this kind of short term
approach, says Christine Berry, could “pose serious risks to a generation of British
savers in their old age.”
Though huge anger has been directed at the banks after the financial crisis the role that
institutional investors played in the build up to the crash is, according to Ms Berry “the
missing piece of the financial crisis jigsaw.”
The report, which is being launched with a keynote speech from Minister Ed Davey, will
call on the government to take steps to ensure that all consumers, whatever the form of
their pension arrangements, are fully protected from reckless or self-interested
behaviour by those who manage their money.
Comments on the report:
Comments on the report:
"Fiduciary duty is the foundation of our capital markets. It is in need of repair. This
report surveys the flaws and the work to be done. The report deserves to be widely
read and the questions it poses deserve carefully considered response.”
-Anne Simpson, Senior Faculty Fellow, Yale and Senior Portfolio Manager, CalPERS
Fairshare Educational Foundation is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales number
05013662 and a registered charity number 1117244. Printed on recycled paper
Fairshare Educational Foundation
Trowbray House
108 Weston Street
London SE1 3QB
020 7403 7800
fairpensions.org.uk
“Despite the hard work of many pension trustees, there is no denying the disappointing
returns of the last decade. The 2008 financial crisis was a particularly nasty shock. Our
report challenges the view that what happened was just bad luck. Rather, the detailed
research behind this report suggests we urgently need to shake up what is expected of
the layers of agents involved in investing other people's pension savings.”- Catherine
Howarth, CEO FairPensions
Fairshare Educational Foundation is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales number
05013662 and a registered charity number 1117244. Printed on recycled paper