On the go: The NatWest Pension Trustee is aiming to use interest in environmental, social and governance issues to boost member engagement more widely.
Last year, the NatWest scheme embarked on a 12-week pilot project, via Legal & General Investment Management, with sustainable fintech company Tumelo.
Active members of NatWest’s default membership were able to use the Tumelo platform to see which companies they had in their pensions and ultimately gave them an opportunity to vote on the issues they cared about most, such as climate change, gender equality and human rights.
On Tuesday, at the LGIM Sustainability Summit, Patrick Scullion, trustee pensions manager at RBS, said that due to the success of the pilot project, the pension scheme was now rolling out use of the platform to all members and hoped it would act as “a hook” for improving member engagement more broadly.
Scullion noted that while the scheme had seen participation in the pilot across all age cohorts, engagement had been strongest among its younger members, with 50 per cent of members who had taken part aged between 18 and 34.
The pilot study found that members were particularly interested in environmental, human rights and equality issues.
Scullion said that the pilot project resulted in a positive impact from members, who were happy to have their opinions heard.
“Members want to be heard and have their say but do not want to make the final decision. They trust us within the industry to make the right decision on their behalf,” he said.
He explained that the next step is to use the Tumelo platform as a tool to increase member engagement more broadly, by hooking members in and then holding their attention to get them “filling out things like an expression of wish [form], making sure their contact information is up to date”, and ultimately encouraging members to save more.
