“There is a lack of work to restore the commitment of management companies”

Shareholder communication is a practice that has grown significantly in recent years. Do your customers have a good understanding of what this concept covers?

Sister of François-Xavier. Our clients are generally familiar with the idea of ​​voting at a general meeting, which is the most prominent time of communication. What we explain to them is that thecommunication function goes much further than that: it is also about communicating with companies, following company strategies, collaborating with other shareholders…

Ann Delaroche. In fact, shareholder engagement involves a number of activities. If people are not always aware of these, it is because these practices are still the work of professionals. For final savers to be real stakeholders, we must have other tools, or use them better, for example in the case of the questionnaire for evaluating options regarding sustainability.

How could this questionnaire be a tool for communication?

Ann Delaroche. The questionnaire is useful but not used. Our clients fill it in, but their preferences are not taken into account throughout the investment chain. Final savers cannot be directly involved. The questionnaires are mainly collected by the company Harvest/O2S, but unfortunately this data is not used for this purpose. However, they could be anonymous and act as a communication tool between final savers and management companies through CGP bodies and other supervisory authorities. And this logic goes both ways: today, we have almost no information from the management companies, we do not know which company they spoke to, which subject, etc. This refund is what is needed and would be of great interest to our customers.

Sister of François-Xavier. I completely agree, there is a lack of reform work. The lack of consistency in reporting and measuring the effectiveness of dialogue is also a problem in our exchanges with our clients. Today, I use polling practices to explain different management company policies to my clients, and show them how they are consistent with their preferences, but we could do better, a go further.

Ann Delaroche. On the part of CGP, this lack of renewal represents a risk: we cannot confirm that the investment made by our clients improves the various negative effects (PAI – Main Adverse Effects) addressed in the questionnaire . This can therefore lead to legal risk in terms of lack of advice, or at the very least frustration, or even loss of customer confidence.

For final savers to become real stakeholders, we need to have other tools, or use them better, for example in relation to the sustainability option evaluation questionnaire.”

Are some products more likely than others to provoke discussion of commitment, such as products with SRI labels?

Ann Delaroche. The label gives confidence to users, but it does not solve the problems mentioned above. We do not have to refund the guarantee on labeled products, so we cannot properly inform our customers. I am also not convinced by the appropriateness of excluding entire areas of activity. For me, exclusion means, in the long term, leaving corporate governance to other actors, often non-European, who do not necessarily have a sustainable approach.

Sister of François-Xavier. I think these exclusions are a good thing, as it is a mainstream label, and not excluding some categories for a sustainable label could through -to create each other. As a CGP, we don’t necessarily need the label, we have our own research and our own indicators. That said, I also use exclusions with my clients: I find it unthinkable to have oil in my portions.

As a CGP, are communication policies an argument to avoid potential fear, especially about greenwashing?

Sister of François-Xavier. To fight against green cleaning, we need to be able to present hard evidence to our customers. However, all publications are similar, so we have to rely on the DNA of the management companies we work with. What are their values? Who are their shareholders? How long have they been involved? Let’s look at all these criteria. We often talk about fund selectors in our profession, but I don’t see my profession that way: we rather choose management companies.

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