Quick Corp. (“Quick”), has been selected to undertake the research mandate for Government Pension Investment Fund (“GPIF”), “Research project on how the Government Pension Fund should undertake Stewardship responsibilities and ESG investment”. FTSE Group (“FTSE”), will participate in this project as the sub-contractor.
The main research themes are as follows:
- The social and institutional framework and practice of Stewardship responsibilities by asset managers and pension funds.
- The structure and method to evaluate the Stewardship activities of asset managers acting as asset trustees for investors such as pension funds.
- The societal background and institutional framework of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) investment, the factors considered in ESG investments, the method to incorporate those factors into the investment process and the relationship with Corporate Governance.
- The relationship between Stewardship activities and ESG investment, the cost, effect and externality.
Recognising the importance of global best practices globally for this mandate, QUICK has sub-contracted FTSE, an institution headquartered in the UK with extensive experience of ESG. Together they will conduct research overseas.
Quick founded the ESG Research Center in April 2014 and started to distribute supporting-financial information including ESG data with a view to assist its conventional financial data service. This was due to the increasing importance placed on supporting data by investors and companies.
As of September 2nd 2014, 160 global institutions including GPIF, became signatories to the Japanese Stewardship Code, “Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors”, and as such, these investors are expected to uphold their commitment. In order to have a constructive vision to encourage sustainable growth of companies, the analysis and evaluation of firms based on supporting-financial information including ESG data will become increasingly important. QUICK is committed to providing a platform that will connect investors and businesses, through analytical frameworks, analyst reports, and supply chain data.
FTSE is headquartered in the UK where the world’s first Stewardship Code was established. FTSE has contributed widely to the global evolution of stewardship and ESG investment through taking leadership roles in the sustainable investment industry associations in Europe, North America and Asia, as well as advisory committees for the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment. FTSE provides a variety of ESG data and analytical services including indices such as the FTSE4Good Series, the FTSE ESG Ratings and associated research tools.
Both institutions are committed to continuously providing analytical frameworks and data which integrate global corporate ESG information for use by investors and companies.