UKSIF report on pension funds

A quick plug for UKSIF's survey of pension fund practice in terms of ESG issues. More details here. Headlines below:

BT Pension Scheme retained its Platinum ranking in this second bi-annual survey, while The Barclays UK Retirement Fund, BP Pension Fund and HBOS Final Salary Pension Scheme all progressed to a Gold ranking from Silver. Three quarters of repeat respondents achieved a higher score this year than in 2007.

The survey found that trustees of three quarters of surveyed funds now believe that ESG (environmental, social, governance) factors can have a material impact on the fund’s investments in the long term. Two thirds of trustees thought it was important to align the plan’s RI policy with the fund sponsor’s CSR policies.