The Investment Association

Today, the European Commission published its Savings and Investments Union (SIU) Strategy to help boost companies' access to capital and improve households’ wealth. The Strategy is the first articulation of priorities by the new Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Luis Albuquerque, and will steer all action taken by her Directorate throughout this mandate.? Here are three key takeaways from this week in Brussels for the investment management industry:?? ?? The SIU, which reflects many of the IA’s key policy asks, demands that bold and decisive action is taken to put high levels of cash deposits to more productive use. It aims to achieve this by promoting best-practice guidance on national savings accounts, similar to the UK ISA, by Q3 2025.?? ? ?? More broadly, the Commission is aiming to tackle the issue of pension adequacy by providing various recommendations to Member States, such as adopting auto-enrolment and utilising pension dashboards. We look forward to sharing our experience from the UK with policymakers in the EU.?? ? ?? One to watch - trilogues are starting on the Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) this week. We’re supporting EFAMA with its call for simplification of the RIS, but more needs to be done to boost competitiveness and reduce regulatory burden.? ? And finally, Karen Northey and Suzi Nandera from the IA have been out and about this week, meeting with the European Commission, the European Parliament, and various members and missions, as well as joining a discussion with Emma Reynolds on the future of the UK-EU relationship. At the heart of conversations has been the recognition of the issue of allocating large savings in the EU, totalling over EUR 34 trillion, to more productive investments. Not only is this important for citizens and better returns, but this change will foster deeper capital markets, and help realise the growth agenda in the EU.

With just one week to go there’s a few last tickets up for grabs for IAEngine’s EmTech Global Conference ?? Don’t miss out on your opportunity to hear from some of the most exciting names in fintech and innovation and learn about the latest technological advances in the investment management industry! Register here: https://lnkd.in/dpH6cgAq We can’t wait to welcome our amazing line up to this year’s conference, including: ?? Max McKechnie, Global Market Strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, who will be discussing the evolving landscape for investment management and innovation ?? Lauren Dixon, CDO, Financial Conduct Authority, who will be sharing the regulator’s view on supporting innovation, ambition and opportunity ?? Jason Webb, Director of Web3, SS&C Technologies, Ruben Nieto Martin-Vares, Managing Director, Allfunds Blockchain S.L.U and Liz Lawson, Lead Digital Assets Analyst, T. Rowe Price UK who will be joining a panel on the future of tokenisation and distributed ledger technology ?? Symon Garfield, Director Capital Markets Advisory & Digital Strategy, Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft, who will be discussing how AI is revolutionising investment strategies and facilitating unprecedented efficiencies ? Jonathan Cleborne, CFA, Head of Europe, Vanguard,?Cassie Waller, CEO, Santander Asset Management, Dario Crispini, Founder & CEO, Kaizen Reporting, Ouajnat K., CEO, AXA Investment Managers who will be sharing a view from the top on establishing the UK as the world’s leading digital centre for investment management ?? Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, who will be delivering a keynote address on championing the UK’s growth and innovation in Investment Management Thanks to our Innovation Partner Fundipedia and event sponsors DAC Beachcroft, Kaizen, Archax, SS&C Technologies and FundGuard for their support on what is set to be an exciting day.

We are delighted to share that Renarta Guy, Chief People Officer at Aviva Investors, has been appointed as Chair of the Investment Association’s HR Committee. ? The HR Committee provides a forum for HR leaders across the investment management industry to discuss HR related issues and policy developments. The committee informs the work the Investment Association undertakes on behalf of its members and their clients in these areas. We are excited to welcome Renarta into this role, where she will provide her valuable insight and knowledge to committee discussions.

Thanks to the EU Delegation to the EU for inviting Jonathan Lipkin, Director of Policy, Strategy and Innovation at the Investment Association to moderate a panel at its conference on the UK pensions review and European perspective this morning. ? Jonathan was joined by Tilman Lueder, Head of Insurance and Pensions, European Commission, Tessa Page, Partner and UK Wealth Strategy Leader at Mercer, Lesley-Ann Morgan, FIA, Global Head of Pensions and Retirement at Schroders and?Nike Trost, Head of Asset Management and Pensions Policy at the Financial Conduct Authority for an engaging and insightful discussion on the future of the pensions landscape in the UK and EU. ? The conversation focused on the challenges of retirement saving and planning for the long-term, the role pension reform plays in boosting growth in the UK and EU, the importance of establishing a risk-on regulatory environment and why we must introduce an ecosystem of good governance, based on securing long-term value for those saving for retirement.

Shareholder voting allows investors to support and challenge the companies they invest in. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has published a voluntary, comprehensive and standardised vote reporting template for asset managers operating in the UK. This has been created following extensive work by the Financial Conduct Authority-convened Vote Reporting Group (VRG), set up in November 2022. Establishing a standardised and comparable template for shareholder vote reporting will: ? Support asset managers and pension funds to meet regulatory and client obligations. ?? Offer a more meaningful assessment of how voting is supporting sustainable value creation in businesses. ?? Improve transparency and accountability for the end investor. The Investment Association has supported the work of the FCA’s convened Vote Reporting Group?to create this template. It offers a welcome addition to shareholder vote reporting and will hopefully lead to more consistent reporting requests for asset managers. As the new template is implemented, to deliver meaningful change, we must ensure that it is scalable to support the volume of votes cast by asset managers and continues to provide decision useful information for asset owners. We look forward to continuing to work with the FCA, Vote Reporting Group and PLSA to make the template a success and support our end goal of creating high quality stewardship in the UK.

We are extremely pleased the Financial Conduct Authority has listened to industry concerns and agreed to drop the proposed changes to when regulated firms under investigation are named, instead refining the exceptional circumstances test as we recommended. It is vital that the UK remains globally competitive and attractive for investors and today's decision from the FCA demonstrates its willingness to deliver on its secondary objective to secure UK competitiveness. We will continue to work with the FCA in support of their objective to improve the speed and transparency of enforcement action. Read the FCA's statement below ??

We carried out research with Opinium last year which revealed that significantly fewer women are investors compared to men. It also highlighted a lack of confidence amongst women that they will have enough in their pension pots to live comfortably into retirement. Tomorrow marks International Women’s Day, an important opportunity to reflect on what more our industry can do to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, is able to benefit from the long-term growth and financial resilience that investing can bring. The Investment Association recently set an ambitious target for our industry to increase the number of people holding an investment product from just over 20% of the UK population to 75% over the next decade – meaning that it is imperative that both men and women have the confidence to invest. We want to work with government, regulators and policymakers to create an inclusive investment culture in the UK, that enables the broadest possible range of people to invest. This includes: ???? Introducing more effective financial education to equip people with skills and confidence to make?financial decisions. ?? Improving access to financial advice and continuing to evolve the advice and guidance market so that more people can receive professional support to invest productively and secure their financial futures. ?? Reform the UK’s ISA regime to make it simpler and easier to invest, and reassess contribution limits to better support long-term investment.

LATEST: This morning we’ve published our January 2025 fund statistics – the first insight into fund flows of the new year. The year began with a chill for investors as January saw sharp outflows of ￡3 billion, reversing the ￡2.3 billion inflow we reported in December. January’s outflow arrived as investors faced increased uncertainty over the path of interest rate cuts, anticipated tariffs from the incoming Trump administration, the emergence of DeepSeek and its impact on the AI race, as well as a mixed outlook for the UK economy. ?? Equities bore the brunt of outflows with ￡2.9 billion withdrawn in total across the month. UK equities in particular reached their highest level of outflow since May 2024. ?? Bond funds saw moderate inflows in January of ￡187 million. Specialist Bond funds were the top selling bond sector in January, with inflows of ￡187 million, while UK Gilts funds took in ￡175 million. ?? Index tracking funds remained in inflow with net retail sales of ￡1.8 billion, compared with ￡2.6 billion in December. ? Find out more about the latest data, including the latest commentary from IA Director of Market Insight Miranda Seath on what's driving investor sentiment: https://lnkd.in/eHyxtREz

The IA talks IA podcast was delighted to welcome Jessica Rusu, Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer at the Financial Conduct Authority as the latest podcast guest! ?? Host James King headed down to the FCA offices in Stratford to sit down with Jessica to discuss the opportunities AI is creating for the financial services industry, potential use cases for financial inclusion, the FCA’s regulatory approach to AI and how the regulator is supporting innovation among firms. ? Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gYuAx453

There’s just three weeks to go until IAEngine’s EmTech Global Conference! Don’t miss out on your chance to discover the cutting-edge innovations and transformative technologies that are redefining investment management. ?? We have a fantastic range of speakers lined up, including: ?? A keynote address from Lauren Dixon, CDO at the Financial Conduct Authority ?? Max McKechnie, Global Market Strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management ? A keynote address from Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee ?? Founder and Managing Director of Fundipedia, Simon Swords, who will share his experience of building a successful fintech ?? Julia Streets, CEO of Streets Consulting, who will be hosting the conference and setting us up for a day of engaging and exciting discussion. Head to our website to find out more about the full range of speakers and book your ticket before it’s too late: https://lnkd.in/dpH6cgAq