Royal Bank of Scotland Group Pension Fund: recommendations
From the information provided it appears that the RBS Pension Scheme has an underlying commitment to responsible investment, but does not seem to have translated this into detailed policy implementation, monitoring or transparency. We would recommend:
RI policy, implementation and monitoring
- Inclusion of a detailed policy with regard incorporation of ESG issues into research and investment decisions.
- Identifying specific ESG risks and opportunities for incorporation into research and investment decisions.
- Establishing clear measures to ensure fund managers' performance on ESG issues is carefully monitored and regularly assessed.
- Incorporating assessment of the capacity of fund mangers to carry out the Scheme's ESG policy into its fund manger selection process.
- The use of internal and/or external dedicated resources to undertake ESG engagement on behalf of the scheme.
- Consideration of membership of the UN PRI, both for itself and as a screen re fund manager selection.
Transparency
Given the fundamental importance of transparency to responsible investment, we would recommend a dedicated public section for RI on the Scheme's website, to include disclosure of:
- The Statement of Investment Principles
- Detailed statements of RI policy, policy implementation and performance monitoring
- Full voting records and summary voting analysis
- Detailed ESG engagement initiatives and outcomes
- The scheme's annual reports, which should include a detailed section on responsible investment.
Download Royal Bank of Scotland Group Pension Fund's full scoresheet
If you are a member of this pension scheme, why not email your pension scheme to ask whether they have implemented all or any of these recommendations.
