Responsible business

Responsible partner

We strive to be a trusted partner to our clients, to innovate and to create positive impact

The essence of our business is our ability to empower the investment success of our clients. We strive to provide our clients with value for money and a level of service that meets or exceeds their expectations.

There are three core things we do that are crucial for all clients:

  • Act in line with our values of Client Focus, Excellence, Integrity and Respect
  • Provide sustained excellent risk-adjusted investment performance, net of fees
  • Ensure we maintain the infrastructure to support our clients, protect their assets and provide an excellent level of service, including administration, oversight, client transactions, information and performance analysis and reporting.
Our management structure and governance ensure we have a rigorous, efficient and effective operating model and are able to protect the interests of our clients and end-customers (the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds we manage). They also support effective engagement and challenge at all levels of the business and promote a strong culture.

In EMEA, our key senior management and decision-making forums are the Business Management Committee (BMC), the Risk and Controls Committee (RCC), and the Investment Management Committee (IMC). The BMC, RCC and IMC ensure all affairs of the business are cohesively managed and client interests and potential financial implications are considered by our senior leaders. A series of cross-functional Advisory Groups facilitate engagement, ensure advocacy and support cross-functional decision making at all levels. These include the Diversity and Inclusion Group, Environmental Advisory Group, Product Advisory Group, and the Talent, Culture and Conduct Advisory Group.

Delivering value for our customers

We publish our Value Assessment Reports annually, providing an in-depth assessment of the value provided by the funds in our UK ranges, according to seven criteria set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

We believe that value assessment reporting helps ensure improvements across our industry, including clearer and more specific fund objectives and targets, greater focus on performance after fees and improved transparency regarding costs and charges, all of which will enable customers and their advisers to better measure and compare outcomes across funds and asset managers.

Read our latest Value Assessment Reports here covering the following funds and unit trusts:

Value Assessment Report
Statement of Assessment of Value

Innovation and positive impact

Responsible Investment (RI) is central to our values as an organisation. Our history in RI spans four decades, and we are proud to have been at the forefront of many pioneering industry developments such as becoming a founding signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) in 2006, launching Europe’s first ethically screened fund in 1984 and the launch of our engagement and voting overlay service “reo®” in 20001.

Clients who choose this service can benefit from reo®’s market leading engagement services2, which are widely sought after by a global client base of asset owners including pension funds, insurers, asset managers, fiduciary managers, charities and family offices. Our clients trust us to engage investee companies on ESG issues and sustainability risks and opportunities related to investments.

We have an extensive range of award-winning responsible strategies and solutions for individual and institutional clients with differing priorities, including solutions that meet the growing demand for more sustainable, outcome-driven investment solutions. Since launching the UK’s first daily liquid social bond strategy in 2014, we’ve built out the franchise with European and US-based strategies.

Our responsible range also includes Global, UK and Pan-European Sustainable Outcomes Strategies, Sustainable Infrastructure and Carbon Neutral Real Estate strategies as well as Responsible Global Equity, Sustainable Opportunities and SDG Engagement Global Equity Strategies amongst others. We continue to innovate, creating award-winning strategies that embrace different responsible priorities and approaches across the RI spectrum.

To search our range of responsible funds available in your region click here.

1 Includes the history of all entities under the Columbia Threadneedle brand.

2 For reo® clients, engagement covers listed equities, and corporate (financial and non-financial) credit. 

The Big Exchange

Columbia Threadneedle worked with The Big Issue and a group of peer investment industry firms to develop The Big Exchange, a pioneering social and environmental mobile-first investment platform that launched in October 2020.

The Big Exchange has a mission “to make everyone’s money count for more” by
delivering social and environmental investment funds to a retail audience.

The Big Exchange logo
The platform brings together fund managers, global impact-investing and finance experts, corporates, and social enterprises who recognise the need to drive change. It summarises the positive impact an investment fund has towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through a gold, silver or bronze rating and provides educational content to help customers make better informed investment decisions.

Policies

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Conflicts of interest