ACCESS Pool has announced that it has been approved as a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code 2020 by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

To become a signatory to the code, organisations must submit a Stewardship Report to the FRC, demonstrating how they have applied the code’s 12 principles in the previous 12 months. In preparation for this report, Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) were procured by the pool in November 2023 to expand environmental, social and governance (ESG) and responsible investment oversight for stakeholders’ investments. The organisation collaborated with the pool to assist in its successful Stewardship Code submission, while also helping it to transition into a more sophisticated level of ESG reporting and integration.

Global reward and benefits platform Benefex has acquired Vebnet from Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, for an undisclosed sum.

Under the terms of the transaction, Standard Life and Benefex will enter into a strategic partnership with flexible benefit services currently provided to employers by Standard Life transferring to the Benefex employee benefits platform. Upon completion, 31 corporate customers will transfer to Benefex resulting in more than 140,000 employees being added to its platform. Transferring clients from Standard Life will also have the option to further enhance their employee benefits technology through the wider product offering on OneHub and an expanded geographic footprint of Benefex’s services.

Legal & General (L&G) have announced the launch of three new index funds to bolster its proposition for UK and European investors - the L&G MSCI ACWI IMI Equity Index Fund, the ­L&G Global Bond Multiverse Index Fund, and the Legal & General Future World Infrastructure Index Fund.

The funds are designed for investors looking for better diversification in a market where concentration risks are a big focus. The L&G MSCI ACWI IMI Equity Index Fund aims to provide broad exposure to large, mid, and small-cap global equities, covering approximately 99 per cent of the global investible equity opportunity set. The L&G Global Bond Multiverse Index Fund, meanwhile, is designed to provide diversified exposure to global fixed income markets, going beyond the well-known Global Aggregate index. The L&G Future World Infrastructure Index Fund will invest in a wide range of listed infrastructure companies, favouring those that perform well from an environmental perspective, on a net total return basis. It also aims to achieve a 50 per cent initial reduction in carbon intensity.

Barnett Waddingham has opened a new office in Manchester, as it continues to grow its team in the Northwest of England.

The new office, based at Arkwright House, Parsonage Gardens, aims to provide a central location to support its regional clients as well as expand its nationwide footprint. Taking the total number of established sites across the UK to nine, including those in Liverpool and Leeds, the new office is expected to put Barnett Waddingham in a better position to provide tailored advice and practical solutions across pensions, employee benefits, risk and investment, as well as leveraging a potent professional talent pool.

Adapa Advisory has partnered with environmental, social and governance (ESG) data and reporting solutions provider, Integrum ESG.

Adapa Advisory said that it chose to work with Integrum ESG due to their maturity in delivering solutions to clients across multiple segments, with potential for material further growth. Adapa Advisory provides advisory services to support their clients in defining existing and future requirements within the investment lifecycle and will now introduce Integrum ESG’s wide range of industry-leading solutions to best support the achievement of these objectives within the ESG space. The group emphasised that, given the critical focus on sustainability and responsible investing, the need for robust methodologies, data gathering and verification, security level analysis and reporting solutions is "paramount" for institutional investors.

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