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The Weekly Wrap: May 27 edition

By Natalie Taylor | May 27, 2016

A round-up of the pension industry stories published across the FT Group this week, from Exxon shareholders voting to nominate board members, to Prince Charles chiding investors on sustainability.

The week in numbers 

• Exxon shareholders that have jointly held at least 3% of shares will be able to nominate up to 25% of the board

• 12 expressions of interest in equities have been made by sovereign wealth funds in the past year

• Embarrassing revelations have arisen from an investigation into Citigroup traders in 2008

Prince Charles criticises fund mangers on sustainable investment 

FTfm: The Prince of Wales has said that asset managers' “reticence to embrace sustainable investment” is putting the world at risk. Speaking at an industry event in London, the prince called for fund managers and asset owners to consider factors other than short-term gains when making investment decisions. He previously criticised the investment industry's focus on short-term results over the needs of savers.

Shareholders can nominate Exxon board members

FT: A proposal by New York City’s pension funds that shareholders in ExxonMobil should be able to nominate board directors was passed by Exxon shareholders on Wednesday. Under so-called proxy access, a group of shareholders which has jointly held 3 per cent or more of the shares for more than three years can nominate up to a quarter of the board’s directors each year.

Sovereign wealth funds target equities and illiquid assets

MandateWire: Sovereign wealth funds focused on achieving long-term return over the past year, with FT service MandateWire recording 12 expressions of interest in equities and six in property. SWFs targeted a broad range of illiquid assets, including property, infrastructure, private equity and private debt, expressing relatively little interest in traditional fixed income.

Citi traders’ 2008 manipulations revealed

FT: An investigation has uncovered embarrassing evidence about the behaviour of Citigroup traders during the financial crisis. In instant messages from 2008 published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, traders said it was “surprising[ly] easy to push” the Isdafix dollar benchmark close to the daily 11am fixing time, and boasted about how far they “had moved the screen”.

Ombudsman admonishes Tenet over pension transfer advice

FTAdviser: The Financial Ombudsman Service has criticised an adviser at Tenet for telling a client to transfer from an occupational pension to a personal plan that could not match the former's benefits. The ombudsman said that the critical yield needed for the personal pension plan to match the benefits provided by the occupational pension scheme at age 60 was calculated as 7.6 per cent – at a level of risk that was too high for the client. 

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