The Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) has announced its adoption of pass-through voting, in what it described as a "significant step" towards enhancing its responsible investment strategy .

Pass-through voting allows pension schemes to enforce their voting preferences on Annual General Meeting (AGM) resolutions within their pooled-fund investments.

Through this, GMPF can uniformly apply its voting policy across both segregated and pooled funds, allowing it to directly influence decisions on critical issues such as CEO remuneration and climate change.

Previously, votes in GMPF's segregated mandates were cast according to its values through a policy managed by PIRC, while Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) controlled votes for its pooled funds.

GMPF's adoption of pass-through voting aligns with a growing trend among pension schemes, with both the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL) and Camden Pension Fund recently adopting pass-through voting as well.

This was highlighted by GMPF as demonstration of a "collective effort" to align voting policies across equities, ensuring that investments reflect the schemes' responsible investment values.

Like SAUL and the Camden Pension Fund, GMPF, as a client of LGIM, partnered with fintech Tumelo to implement this voting capability.

Commenting on the news, GMPF chair, Gerald Cooney, said: "It’s great to see three of our partners, Legal & General, Tumelo, and PIRC, working together to help us implement our voting policy across more of our investments.

“We continue to value the stewardship activities undertaken by LGIM beyond the votes, implementing our voting policies will also give GMPF more influence and a stronger voice when we engage with portfolio companies."

Adding to this, Tumelo CEO, Georgia Stewart, said: "Pension funds are increasingly aware of their potential to impact the companies they invest in.

“Customising stewardship is crucial in amplifying this influence, ensuring investments reflect their goals. The stewardship landscape is set to become more intricate.”

LGIM head of strategic clients, James Sparshott, said that LGIM is “pleased” to be able to support GMPF in applying their own policy on key issues through its partnership with Tumelo.

"We are thrilled to extend our work with GMPF to enhance voting consistency and better align their investment principles across their investments,” PIRC managing director, Alan MacDougall, added.

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