NETHERLANDS - Harry Hummels, author of influential guidelines for responsible investing (SRI) by pension funds, says there is no need to launch another practical commission to measure how schemes have improved their SRI-practices.
Hummels, a director of SNS Asset Management and professor in ethics, told IPE he has been approached by Frans Prins, director of the corporate pension funds organisation OPF, to evaluate at the end of this year or early next year if and how pension funds' SRI-practices have improved on year on.
That said, Hummels believes for such an evaluation "we do not need another practical commission."
"It is too early yet to provide data," suggests Hummels, thought he notes by the end of the year smaller pension funds in particular will have had time to properly implement changes to their SRI policy, the effects of which can then be measured by a "formal analysis".
OPF, together with the two other pension organisation VB and UvB, presented Hummels' initial report De gearriveerde Toekomst ('The Future has arrived'), Last November, in a bid to provide a ‘how to' list to formulate and execute a policy of responsible investing.
The report was the conclusion of the so-called 'practical commission', set up in April and headed by Hummels, after news surfaced revealing Dutch pension funds at the time had invested nearly €230m in companies that produce cluster bombs and landmines, or make use of child labour.
At that time, the commission decided not to devise a framework itself, but to leave implementation or improvement of policy to the pension funds themselves.
If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Carolyn Bandel on +44 (0)20 7261 4622 or email carolyn.bandel@ipe.com
No comments yet