The percentage of women appointed as UK financial service directors dropped 28 percentage points in 2023, shrinking from 61% in 2022 to 33% in 2023 according to a poll from EY European Financial Services Boardroom Monitor. The decline marked the UK as having the lowest percentage of women appointments across major European markets, with France, … Read more
The Diversity Project Pathway programme, which aims to increase the number of women in fund management roles, has reported that 16 participants from last year’s cohort were promoted to deputy portfolio managers or portfolio manager positions. As a result, the Diversity Project is expanding the programme for 2024 from 60 to 80 participants across 43 … Read more
Financial institutions from across the globe, including Schroders, Robeco, Nomura Asset Management, Mirova, Fidelity International, Federated Hermes and Candriam, are among the early adopters of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) reporting recommendations. Announced at the World Economic Forum’s Davos conference, 320 organisations from over 46 countries – including over 100 financial institutions representing … Read more
A proliferation of climate adaptation strategies and transitioning planning, alongside an increase in demand for climate tech skills and the integration of financial planning within carbon management platforms, were among the predictions for 2024 by research firm Verdantix. Greater pressure from an increasing amount of regulatory reporting was cited as a primary reason for these … Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Daniel Godfrey as chair and Julia Dreblow as vice-chair of a new working group to build capabilities in sustainable finance across the financial advice sector. The Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association (PIMFA) will provide the secretariat to the working group. Daniel Godfrey was chief executive of … Read more
Darius McDermott, managing director, Chelsea Financial Services We’re looking at potentially increasing our exposure to climate strategies. Amid a value rotation triggered by inflation and climbing interest rates, climate strategies have taken a beating, and the financial challenges faced by established renewables companies like Orsted and Siemens Energy have soured sentiment further. However, in the … Read more
A review of Fortune 500 European and US companies reveals a “concerning reality” where a “significant number” of boards lack basic sustainability expertise, according to a new report. Competent Boards, which runs ESG education programmes for board directors and business leaders, and the Copenhagen Business School, came to the conclusion having assessed publicly available information … Read more
In the wake of COP28 and the renewed focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Richard Mattison, vice chair at S&P Global Sustainable, discusses the difficulties investors have when incorporating SDG metrics into investment portfolios, and looks toward the future to identify how this space will evolve. What are your thoughts on the UN’s … Read more
The new year is well and truly under way, the mountains around Davos have turned a snowy white, and the 2024 edition of the World Economic Forum is about to get underway. What can investors expect? As in previous years, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 official guests will attend – many from the business community, … Read more
In 2009, a team of internationally renowned scientists introduced ‘planetary boundaries’. This framework was designed to communicate the limit to which humans could impact the Earth’s systems without disrupting its stability. The scientists were able to identify nine boundaries: climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, chemical pollution, freshwater consumption, land-use change, nitrogen … Read more