Investment Uncut: Investing for the 22nd century

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In this week’s episode Jacob Shah and Laasya Shekaran are joined by two guests: Emma Hunt, Head of Responsible Investment at HSBC Bank Pensions Trust and Stephen Barrie, Deputy Chief Responsible Investment Officer at the Church of England Pensions Board. Both guests give us a great insight into how long-term asset owners are thinking about systemic risks and universal ownership.

Before this discussion, we also speak to Claire Jones, Head of Responsible Investment at LCP for our ‘Views from the Boardroom’ segment. We discuss LCP’s recently launched climate policy asks, discussing why climate change is such a financially material risk to investors, why policymakers are key to addressing this and what LCP is doing in this area.

With Emma and Stephen, we continue on with the theme of systems thinking and discuss:

• Why Emma and Stephen are both thinking about investing for the 22nd century in their roles.
• How investors can understand what their institutional identity and purpose is, and how this in turn can inform their investment decision making and the entities they choose to align with.
• Universal ownership and how a systems-based approach to investing differs from traditional investment approaches.
• How investors can start identifying the issues that are likely to be the most financially material and systemically important in the long term.

What’s one thing listeners should take away from this?

• Asset owners have a distinctive role and responsibility at the top of the investment chain that comes from the core of their purpose – stewarding assets for their beneficiaries.