Stewardship Code

Barclays Investment Solutions Limited (BISL) is a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code (The Code), which sets high stewardship standards for those investing money on behalf of UK savers and pensioners and those that support them. According to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), stewardship is the responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital to create long-term value for clients and beneficiaries with the aim of achieving sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society. The Code sets out a number of principles and guidelines designed to improve the ways that institutional investors interact with the management of companies in which they invest.

Some of the requirements of the Code are set out in the revised Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II). SRD II aims to promote effective stewardship and long-term investment decision-making via the enhancement of the transparency of shareholder engagement policies and investment strategies across the institutional investment community.

SRD II introduced requirements for asset managers to publish details of their engagement statement. More details on our stewardship approach, specifically shareholder engagement, are set out in the shareholder engagement statement.

Barclays Wealth Management¹ is the division of Barclays Bank PLC which carries out, among other services, investment management activities, predominantly in the form of multi-manager and fund of fund arrangements. BISL delegate the selection of assets, including shares, to other investment managers, by either investing into a fund or by giving a number of managers a portion of the money that we raise to invest on our behalf. These third-party managers are selected via a due diligence process and are subject to ongoing monitoring. BISL primarily use third-party asset managers in its investment process and when selected their approach to responsible investment and stewardship is assessed.

The latest UK Stewardship Code Report relating to stewardship activities undertaken between 1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023 is available here.