The Investment Association: How to make the investment industry serve domestic and international investors
Ahead of their policy roundtable at the Conservative Party Conference, Investment Association chair Helena Morrissey describes their work to make the UK a great place for asset management businesses.
Following the global financial crisis which began in 2008, many questions are being asked about the role of financial services, including asset management firms. Are they socially useful? Do they ensure that the economy can grow sustainably? Are asset management firms committed to values such as diversity and opportunity in the workplace?
Those questions are intensifying also as a result of structural change both in the UK and many parts of the world. Demographic shifts in particular, and Government responses to those shifts, mean that millions of households are increasingly dependent on financial markets for their long-term well-being. At the same time, partly as a result of the 2008 crisis, neither Governments nor banks are in quite the same position to finance the economy in the same way. A mistrust of financial services lingers from the crisis and has not been helped by the emergence of a series of scandals in the intervening years.
If an industry body had declared an ‘age of asset management’, they might have been accused of over-egging it a bit. But it was in fact Bank of England Executive Director Andy Haldane who coined the term. In a thought-provoking speech two years ago, he identified why asset managers were becoming more important, both in pension provision and as a potential source of long-term capital.
Not only do we think Mr Haldane is right, but The Investment Association (IA) has spent a lot of time in recent years thinking about the implications in conversation with a wide range of stakeholders. For with opportunity comes also great responsibility for the industry. The IA has been engaged across the landscape, from the transparency agenda to productivity and, most recently, executive remuneration. This engagement has a specific purpose: to ensure that the industry can deliver in the best possible way for clients, but also be a trusted partner of Government, business and, of course, consumers. In so doing, we aim to make the UK a great place for the location of asset management businesses, serving domestic and international investors.
As Chair of the IA, and as someone involved more broadly in the process of industry change, I welcome these initiatives. My own interests, which include the 30% Club and the Diversity Project, also encompass the wider debate about the importance of all talent, whether within asset management firms, or in our investee companies. The 30% Club aims to encourage greater gender diversity at all levels of business, while the Diversity Project has more far-reaching goals relating to ethnicity, socio-economic background, degree discipline, sexual orientation, age and disability in investment and savings firms. This new Project complements Investment 2020, a pre-existing initiative aiming to broaden the recruitment base of the investment management industry.
People matter, and by being enlightened employers as well as investors, we can help to oversee companies with a positive agenda that better connects us with society, remains aligned with needs of our clients and the objective of sustainable long-term economic growth.
The Investment Association will be hosting a breakfast at next month’s Conservative Party Conference to provide an opportunity to discuss all of these issues, as well as some more immediate challenges, such as Brexit. I look forward to the conversation.
Investment matters: how to support economic growth and deliver strong returns for savers in uncertain times
09:00 – 10:15am, Tuesday 4 October 2016
Library of Birmingham [outside the secure zone]
For more information or to attend, please contact: Victoria.Fryer@dods.co.uk or 0207 593 5673
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