Message from the CEO
Celebrations for the Association’s anniversary
Welcome to the first edition of our new look IQ. The magazine still includes all the usual news and features to keep you updated on INREV’s activities but which are now presented in a much more accessible and contemporary style.
You will see that it also marks the beginning of our celebrations for the Association’s 10 year anniversary. Some of our long-standing members give us their thoughts on what we have achieved with the support of our membership while a timeline shows the milestones in the last decade.
The celebrations will continue at our Annual Conference in Barcelona in April. However, it will also be business as usual with the Annual General Meeting, which is an important opportunity for members to be updated on our 2012 activities and our plans for 2013. These next steps are also set out in our Business Plan that includes efforts to incorporate debt funds, separate accounts, club deal as well as joint ventures into our work, the promotion of our activities outside Europe and ensuring that we remain on track for globalisation.
The global fund index will be one such example of our globalisation plans with the first results being unveiled at the Annual Conference. The global index marries the independent indices of three not-for profit associations from Europe, Asia and the US and will therefore be an index that is designed by the industry for the industry. It will be a broad inclusive index including closed ended and open ended funds across all three risk/return styles. It is an exciting initiative which we think shows how far the industry has come in the last 10 years.
Meanwhile, the roll out of the INREV Standard Data Delivery Sheet, which will streamline information exchange between investors and fund managers, continues. We’ve recently held roundtables in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam where we’ve had positive feedback and further input on how the SDDS can be improved in order to boost take up. Major investors have told us of their plans to incorporate the SDDS and one fund manager has included a commitment in its fund documentation to deliver data via the SDDS to investors. I would urge you to remind yourself of the benefits of this important initiative.
The industry has been through some huge changes in the last 10 years so it is rewarding to see that the momentum for continuous improvement remains intact.
