DWS and The Asset Management Exchange (AMX) have collaborated on a service aimed at getting pension funds in pooled investment funds to be better represented at company AGMs.
Working in partnership with Minerva Analytics and Northern Trust, the scheme aggregates investor stewardship preferences and seeks to execute votes in alignment with their demands.
Where aggregate investor preferences conflict within a pooled fund, voting instructions can be split accordingly.
The launch of the service follows the UK Government’s announcement in December 2020 of the establishment of the Taskforce on Pension Scheme Voting Implementation to encourage industry solutions linking investor preferences to corporate voting actions.
Christopher Head, head of business development at AMX, said: “It is a paradigm shift which will begin the transition of voting power from investment managers to the rightful institutional asset owners and will increase the speed by which important climate change and governance issues are addressed by corporate stewards across the globe.”
Janice Turner, co-chair of the Association of Member-Nominated Trustees, praised the “innovation” and said the organisation has campaigned for eight years to enable asset owners to have their voting policies implemented in pooled funds.
“We anticipate that this product launch will fuel the innovation that is desperately needed within the financial services industry to change their business models and products to better accommodate client voting preferences.”
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