mallowstreet University Dinner: Integrating responsible investing to meet your investment objectives

Sponsored by

BMO Global Asset Management

Low Dependency Portfolios - Integrating Credit and LDI

Most pension schemes are on a journey towards self-sufficiency or buy-in/out. At the same time, The Pensions Regulator is pushing schemes to move towards a low dependency portfolio as they mature. As a result, most pension schemes’ longer term investment objectives combine high hedge ratios with an increased allocation to credit. Both long dated cashflow matching and short dated credit can be used. We will discuss the appropriateness of each for different pension scheme circumstances. Furthermore, we will explore how to integrate the two to ensure maximum hedge accuracy, collateral efficiency, and governance efficiency.

About BMO Globl Asset Management

At BMO Global Asset Management, we believe that institutional clients need an investment partner that truly understands the environment in which they operate and how it is evolving.

We have been managing assets on behalf of local governments, pension funds, corporate pension funds, insurance companies and charities for many decades.

BMO Global Asset Management offers all the stability and resource of a business with £227 billion under management (31 December 2020) and is part of the BMO Financial Group, founded in 1817 as the Bank of Montreal (BMO), which now has over CAD$949 billion of assets and support over 12 million customers (as at 31 October 2020).

mallowstreet University Dinner: Integrating responsible investing to meet your investment objectives

Taking a refreshingly practical approach, Vicki Bakhshi, Head of GSI at BMO Global Asset Management considers solutions for investors facing the challenges of integrating responsible investment practices into their portfolios. In the confusing world of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues Vicki will review ways to invest positively, avoid the negatives and use your influence as investors to improve and engage. She is joined by Howard Pearce, Chair of BMO’s Responsible Investment Advisory Council, who will offer insights of his practical experience of designing, implementing, and reporting on responsible investment and ESG issues for the Environment Agency Pension Fund (2003-2013) and as an independent non-executive advisor (2013 to date).

Speakers

Vicki Bakhshi
Director, Climate Strategist, Responsible Investment
Vicki is a Responsible Investment Specialist at BMO Global Asset Management. Her focus is on advising the firm on climate change and impact investing strategies. She also engages with investee companies in the utilities sector, encouraging best practice in sustainability and governance issues. Prior to working at BMO, she spent five years in the UK government, including as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s policy adviser on climate change, and as a senior member of the team responsible for the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. She spent three years at the Financial Times as a leader writer, and two years as an economist at the Bank of England. Vicki chairs the UKSIF Policy Committee, and co-chairs the climate scenarios working group of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. She holds an MSc in Economics from Warwick University and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Howard Pearce
Howard brings to the Council specific experience in integrating financially material ESG issues within the pension fund arena, having been the principal adviser to, and trustee of, the Pensions Committee of the Environment Agency from 2003 to 2013 and more recently as an independent non-executive advisor to a number of pension funds and other bodies. Howard led Environment Agency fund manager selection exercises for public equities, private equity, fixed income, property, infrastructure, farmland and timberland and was responsible for the fund winning numerous RI awards. He has been named one of the ten most important ethical leaders in the Ethical Corporation Journal (2008). He was also named as the UK’s most enlightened pension fund leader in a House of Lords debate about corporate governance and responsible investment (2011), and listed by Financial News as one of the top five most innovative and influential people in pensions and investments in the UK (2012).