Responsible business
Responsible partner
We strive to be a trusted partner to our clients, to innovate and to create positive impact
As a global, active asset manager, we’re driven by what matters to our clients and we’re focused on delivering their desired investment outcomes whilst providing excellent client service.
To help ensure this, we:
- Act in line with our values of Client Focus, Excellence in all we do, Integrity always and Respect for the individuals and for the communities in which we live and work.
- Aim to provide a well-established, repeatable investment process and sustained excellent risk-adjusted investment performance, net of fees.
- Have rigorous governance of our organisation to promote our values-driven culture and to maintain strong oversight of our products.
In EMEA, our governance and key decision-making forums are the Business Management Committee (BMC) and the Financial and Operational Risk Committee (FORC) chaired by the Head of EMEA and Global Business Operations and the EMEA Chief Risk Officer respectively. The BMC and FORC are designed to ensure all affairs of the business are cohesively managed and client interests and potential financial and risk implications are considered by our senior leaders and boards.
A series of business committees provide input to the BMC and FORC, these include the Client Distribution & Services Committee, the Investment Management Committee and the Product Approval Committee.
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:
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
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.
