Corporate Governance Committee update
Busy period for Professional Standards committees
The revision of the INREV Guidelines means a busy period for all the Professional Standards committees, and this is no exception for the Corporate Governance Committee.
The committee is overseeing the corporate governance aspects of the review as part of the wider project. “Corporate Governance is one of the pillars of the Guidelines so we need to make sure we reflect best practice and that the Guidelines stand up in light of upcoming regulations such as AIFMD” said Alasdair Evans, Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee.
The first indication from the committee’s review is that the content of the Guidelines remains best practice. The Corporate Governance Guidelines are principle based, which are applicable to all of the growing product range currently embraced by INREV. “We do see some differences in the application of these principles to different circumstances, such as to support implementation for debt funds and club deals, for example, or to highlight differences between open end and closed end funds” said Evans.
Corporate Governance is one of the pillars of the Guidelines so we need to make sure we reflect best practice and that the Guidelines stand up in light of upcoming regulations such as AIFMD
The comparison with content in AIFMD has also reinforced the core of the Corporate Governance Guidelines with the review finding little in the Guidelines that conflicts with the upcoming AIFMD. “That is testament to the good work done by the membership to produce these Guidelines. It shows that AIFMD is consistent with good corporate governance in funds”.
Aside from the Guidelines, the committee is also working to refine its online self-assessment tool. This is designed to help fund managers, investors and advisors identify how well funds have adopted INREV’s seven corporate governance principles. The tool identifies sample behaviour which exhibits good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory corporate governance to assess the fund. We also encourage users to submit data to INREV to assess on an aggregate level. Improvements have now been added to the tool to allow users to download the results in Excel, which will make the results easier to use.
The committee also has three new members this year, including two investors: Tinke Kleine from PGGM and Klas ?kerbäck from Tredje AP-fonden. It is also benefiting from input from TIAA CREF, through the contribution from Kevin Maxwell.
At the end of the year, Evans will rotate off the committee, relinquishing his role as Chairman after eight years. “The revision of the Guidelines and the alignment with AIFMD represents the next major milestone in the committee’s work. Once that is complete, it’s a good point to hand over responsibilities to a new chairman,” he said.
