| From across the nation and around the world, INSIGHTS-edge brings you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest regarding ESG, Sovereign Wealth Funds and US Public Sector Pension Funds. We watch the watchers...who are watching you. ESG / Sustainability Huge investor coalition demands bribery policy clarity from 21 major companies
(Source: Responsible Investor) A coalition of 20 pension fund investors and fund managers with assets of $1.7 trillion – all signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment – is pressuring major companies, notably in the defence and construction sectors, to reveal their management policies on bribery and corruption. The campaign follows a slew of recent cases involving large multinationals and alleged kickbacks. BNY Mellon To Increase Social Investing Options
(Source: Business Ethics) BNY Mellon, a large New York-based asset management and securities services company, intends to increase the use of data regarding environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors “to help identify companies that will outperform in the future, based on their environmental or social responsibility,” according to the firm’s 2009 corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. 2010 Proxy Season: SEC Reveals its Reasoning on ESG Proposals
(Source: Risk Metrics Group) During this proxy season, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been shedding more light on the reasons for its rulings on no-action petitions to exclude shareholder proposals from corporate proxy statements. In many cases, the staff of the SEC's Corporation Finance Division has been including nuggets of information that provide some enlightenment on why the agency made a particular decision. Obama, the Shareholder Activist?
(Source: Mother Jones) As the Senate's financial reform effort nears the final stretch, there's no mistaking the Obama administration's stance on regulating derivatives, the complex products that derive their value from underlying prices (the cost of wheat, say, or certain stock's value) and are used to both hedge risk and recklessly bet on the economy. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission which oversees derivatives, wants the opaque, $450 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market dragged fully into the open, so price, volume, and the structure of deals is transparent. Sovereign Wealth Funds Transparency a double-edged sword for sovereign wealth funds
(Source: Global Pensions) The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIM) held its inaugural meeting at the beginning of March, ostensibly to facilitate discussions between Western central banks and the ever-growing sovereign wealth fund (SWF) community (estimated to be worth well in excess of US$3trn) over how to mend the global financial system. It has been suggested that this new forum, which is held behind closed doors, is essentially a way of helping Western authorities find buyers for the great volume of government debt they will have to issue over the next few years. But regardless of the real intentions and objectives of this meeting, it illustrates how significantly the perceptions of SWFs have changed since the start of the financial crisis. The allure of sovereign wealth funds
(Source: Business Day) As Nigeria decides to set-up a Sovereign Wealth Fund, the allure and strategic importance of such a Fund becomes instructive. Nigeria will soon join other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to float a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) as the federal government now jettisons the grossly abused Excess Crude Account (ECA) which was an extra-legal creation of the last Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The ECA was ostensibly conceived to domicile funds saved from excess foreign exchange earned as a result of increase in oil prices over and above budgeted price benchmark. It is disturbing that the ECA in recent times had been badly managed as proceeds have been shared among tiers of government without any consideration for prudence or the general well being of Nigerians now or in the near future. |
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US Public Sector Pension Funds Public-worker pension bills threaten economy, (Gov.) Lingle says
(Source: Honolulu Advertiser) The rising cost of paying pensions for public workers threatens future economic growth in the U.S., Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday at a panel discussion during the Milken Institute's annual Global Conference in Los Angeles. "Until the public rises up and says, 'Enough is enough, you have to stop this spending,' it won't stop, and our quality of life will degrade," Lingle said of government-paid retirement benefits, according to a Bloomberg News report. Pension Pains: States Cut Benefits to Skirt Massive Funding Shortfall
(Source: ABC News) Illinois recently cut benefits and raised retirement ages for public employees in order to cover a $78 billion shortfall in its public pension fund. States around the country are beginning to face the necessity of reforming their public pension systems, after the financial crisis took a bite out of already inadequate savings and put a seemingly insurmountable gap between assets and the benefits that governments had promised their workers. SEC Charges Private Equity Firm and Money Manager for Defrauding Detroit-Area Public Pension Funds
(Source: Securities and Exchange Commission) The SEC alleges that Detroit-based Onyx Capital Advisors LLC and its founder Roy Dixon, Jr., raised $23.8 million from the three pension funds for a start-up private equity fund created to invest in small and medium-sized private companies. Often to cover overdrafts in his bank accounts, Dixon illegally withdrew money invested by the pension funds from the bank accounts of the private equity fund. Assisting in the scheme was Dixon’s friend Michael A. Farr, who controls three companies in which the Onyx fund invested millions of dollars. Farr diverted money invested in these entities to another company he owned, withdrew the money from that bank account, and gave the cash to Dixon. Farr also kept some money for himself, and used investor funds to make payments to contractors building a multi-million dollar house for Dixon, who lives primarily in Atlanta. Watching the Watchers  GES Investment Services
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; research center in Poland
Established: 1992, as CaringCompany KEY COLLABORATIONS
the former SiRi. Also: Participant in the UN Global Compact, UN PRI, and a member of Concito, Denmark’s first green think tank. OVERVIEW/MISSION
GES describes itself as a “research and service provider for responsible investment.” GES, which stands for Global Ethical Standard, believes “sustainability pays off.” GES states its mission as “To make it a little bit better, everyday.” GES fulfills this mission for client investors, companies, GES itself, and the world at large. Principles include providing quality research, improving governance and performance of companies, and holding constructive, educational dialogue with companies on behalf of investors. GES repeatedly (and clearly) expresses its values in its code of conduct: long-term commitment, integrity, respect, and responsibility. Its principles address legal compliance, relations with business partners, transparency, conflict of interest, environment, and human rights. GES also states its “independence policy,” which lists political, religious and financial independence, plus expectations that GES associates behave objectively, fairly, neutrally, and impartially. From the organization:
“The philosophy behind GES is essentially that all international norms agreed upon between countries and their multilateral organizations are of importance to companies operating in those countries and that they eventually will be judged in accordance with these norms by the authorities, the public and their representatives, NGO's, media etc. Therefore these agreements serve as a reasonable foundation for evaluating companies. “In our services we cover large global universes of world indeces or more, in order to serve mainstream investors' needs. Through our international network – SiRi Company Ltd. – we have access to over 100 analysts.” (Note: SiRi Company ceased operations in Fall 2009 - see archived profile for more information.) GES claimed 350 billion Euros in assets under advisory as of September 2009. Clients are pension funds, banks, foundations, trade unions, and other financial market players. |
