The CWC launched the Asset Manager Accountability Initiative in 2019 to support trustees and unions in raising workers’ rights issues with asset managers.
As part of this initiative, the CWC is producing report cards on 10 global asset managers. The report cards examine the policy interventions, shareholder engagements, proxy voting records and stewardship practices in alternative investment portfolios of these asset managers. They uncover any discrepancies between discourse and action on social issues. Subsequently, meetings between asset managers and pension fund trustees in the CWC’s global network are organised to launch a constructive dialogue aimed at elevating social issues within the investment chain.
The Asset Manager Accountability Initiative is designed to produce outcomes at three levels:
- Accountability at the company level: Improve conditions on the ground in specific cases brought forward by unions where companies are violating workers’ rights;
- Accountability within the investment chain: Organize asset owners to reassert the balance of power by holding the asset managers they contract accountable on social issues;
- Accountability within the financial system: Provide asset owners with opportunities to press for mechanisms at the policy and regulatory levels that advocate for mandatory due diligence.
To read about the initiative, click here.
To read about the report cards, click here.
This initiative builds on our work examining asset managers’ policy interventions, shareholder engagements and proxy voting records.
We extend this focus on asset manager accountability to the matter of costs and fees in the investment chain. Our report on pension fund cost transparency highlights efforts by trade unions and trustees in four countries to shed light on opaque costs incurred by pension funds through the use of cost transparency templates.