On the go: Nest Invest, the investment subsidiary created by the master trust alongside its move into private credit, has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The occupational pension scheme firm will allow Nest to implement more sophisticated ways of investing on behalf of its members, it stated.
Nest Invest will now be able to provide regulated advice to Nest’s board on new investment opportunities, make active decisions on co-investment opportunities in private markets in due course, and direct fund managers to use derivatives in order to help invest Nest’s cash flows and manage risk efficiently.
In September, the master trust announced that it had appointed Amundi and BlackRock for a private credit mandate, with a goal of having about 5 per cent of its default fund invested in this asset class.
A month later, Nest revealed that it hired BNP Paribas Asset Management as a diversified global loans specialist, which would create an open-ended diversified private credit fund for the pension scheme.
According to Mark Fawcett, Nest’s chief investment officer, the master trust is going to be responsible for more than £400m of new contributions every month.
“We are becoming one of the largest players in the UK pensions market and our investment strategy is evolving to reflect that,” he said.
“While setting up Nest Invest is an exciting development, it is the natural next step for a scheme of our size. We already have the internal expertise in Nest’s investment team to manage the additional responsibilities.”
