Reading through the Investment Association’s recently released Statement of Principles, it is easy to feel underwhelmed.
At first glance they seem too obvious.
But, as Daniel Godfrey, CEO of the trade body whose members manage more than £5trn worth of assets for clients around the world, points out, while the principles seem obvious he believes that if someone has not already read them, rattling off the 10 things the sector should do as a standard is harder than it sounds.
Indeed, he says, the biggest challenge facing the sector is going to be articulating clearly, in as simple a way as possible, the value it adds.
“Our biggest challenge is going to be responding to the questions we will be asked as we take a much more direct role in the financial well-being of millions of people. It is a great opportunity to grow but it comes with a great deal of accountability and scrutiny,” he says.
“We are going to need to have very clear answers about how investment management works, how it delivers value for money, what its governance structure is and, increasingly, what role we play as people who control big stakes in very big companies; what our responsibility is not just in terms of our clients but also society.”
While Godfrey admits these are all very open questions about which different stakeholders will have differing responses, he says it is important to have answers and to be able to articulate them clearly.
