The Investor & Issuer Forum (I&IF) has launched a new framework aimed at improving engagement across the UK listed equity investment chain, with a focus on stewardship, voting and long-term value creation.
The Investor & Issuer Compass is designed to work as a behavioural framework, guiding how engagement is conducted rather than prescribing outcomes, while enabling asset owners, managers and corporates to better communicate on issues such as voting alignment, stewardship resourcing and UK market competitiveness.
“The Compass provides the shared foundation to achieve better outcomes across the entire chain for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Laura Chappell, chief executive officer of Brunel Pension Partnership, said at the I&IF’s year-end 2025 event in London this week.
She added that asset owners also needed to take responsibility for improving alignment. “As asset owners, we also need to clean up our own house a bit more. The poor old issuers are pulled from pillar to post, and that’s part of the problem – they don’t actually know what we want from them.”
The framework, co-created with asset owners, asset managers and listed companies, is intended to act as a shared reference point, and a reminder of common objectives, when engagement risks becoming fragmented, politicised or overly mechanistic.
It draws on existing UK governance standards, including the Corporate Governance Code and Stewardship Code, without creating additional regulatory obligations.
Sallie Pilot, managing director of the I&IF, said: “The UK equity market has deep strengths – deep expertise, open access and dialogue between boards and investors, transparent information flows and trusted governance frameworks. The Compass simply brings these strengths into one place. It’s a reference point that reminds us what good looks like, and a guide to help us work together more confidently and coherently.”
The Compass sets out five enabling conditions for more effective engagement: proportionate and practical expectations; constructive dialogue; empowered and accountable boards; clear, focused and decision-useful reporting; and an aligned and responsible investment ecosystem.
Launched in September 2024, the I&IF was created to improve the quality and effectiveness of engagement between investors and UK-listed companies, with the aim of supporting long-term value creation and well-functioning capital markets.
Its steering committee also includes asset managers: Hendrik du Toit, founder and CEO of NinetyOne, and Catherine Flockhart, partner of Baillie Gifford. Corporate representation is on board with Cressida Hogg, chair of BAE Systems, Andrew Duff, chair of Sage, and Paula Reynolds, chair of National Grid.
The founding members are Michael McLintock, chair of the Investor Forum, Jonathan Symonds, chair of GSK, Rupert Soames, chair of the CBI; Mark Versey, CEO of Aviva Investors; and Sonja Laud, global chief investment officer of Legal & General Investment Management.
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