Annual Report and Accounts 2010

Indirect investment impact

"From the perspective of an asset manager, the indirect impacts of investments have become much more important."

Shareholder
Stakeholder Research 2010

We recognise that our investment decisions have significant impacts on the environment and society, and on the communities where our investments are based. We encourage our fund managers to think about these impacts - and how they may influence financial returns - when they make these decisions, subject to client mandates. We also recognise that many of our customers want environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to be incorporated explicitly into the investment-making process in a structured way. We aim to offer our customers a choice of products that include an ethical perspective or can be tailored to include one.

Highlights from 2010

  • We established the Responsible Investment Taskforce with representatives from Group Head Office and business units, to explore how we could embed responsible investment principles across the business
  • We had over £2.8 billion of funds under management in specifically social, environmental and transformation related-investments, including Old Mutual Investment Group (SA)'s Futuregrowth Fund, the African Infrastructure Investment Managers Fund, and Skandia's Ideas For Life Fund
  • Futuregrowth (£7 billion funds under management) and Acadian Asset Management (over £31.6 billion funds under management) remained signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment
  • Skandia Denmark and Skandia Investment Group drew up plans to put expanded agreements in place with external fund managers that include social and environmental criteria for 2011
  • In South Africa we continued to focus particularly on investments that are central to the transformation of the South African economy - for example, Old Mutual Investment Group (SA) created the country's first Housing Impact Fund, providing over £700 million to help redress South Africa's huge shortfall in affordable housing.

Our future plans

  • During 2011, the Responsible Investment Taskforce will continue working on group-wide policies and frameworks on responsible investment, as well as helping individual business units to refine their approach and increase the range of responsible investment products we offer.