The Stewardship Hub is a sustainable investing tool providing governance and insights to workplace pension clients, trustees and their advisors

·         The Hub provides greater visibility of fund managers’ stewardship decisions, while enabling trustees to meet their regulatory obligations in a centralised location

·         The Hub - built by Tumelo in partnership with Fidelity - is a market first, and is the latest solution from Fidelity to help clients achieve their ESG goals

Fidelity International, in partnership with impact-focused FinTech, Tumelo, has launched a market-first Stewardship Hub to provide governance and insights for workplace pension clients, trustees and their advisors.

The new Stewardship Hub - built by Tumelo in partnership with Fidelity - enables pension scheme clients and trustees to look through the underlying fund holdings of a scheme’s portfolios and receive details of the stewardship activities of their fund managers.

As well as providing greater visibility of fund managers’ stewardship decisions, the Hub enables trustees to meet their obligation to produce an Implementation Statement as part of their annual report, through its inclusion of Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) statistics and copies of fund manager policies. In this way, the Hub aids communication between asset owners and fund managers by providing a centralised place for information, analysis and comparison and streamlines data operations, while also facilitating reporting for fund managers.

The Stewardship Hub also displays the vote preferences of pension scheme members on different company issues, from climate change to gender equality, where Tumelo’s Shareholder Platform is made available to them. In line with the Government’s Taskforce on Pension Scheme Voting Implementation (TPSVI), Tumelo enables trustees to extend their fiduciary responsibility to stewardship and to make sure voting and engagement undertaken by fund managers is in the long-term best interests of members.  

The Hub will be rolled out in phases to Fidelity Master Trust clients, who will be able to provide feedback on the Hub and its features.

Tumelo, an impact-focused FinTech, shows individual and institutional investors the companies their pension is invested in and empowers them to engage with fund managers on ESG issues that are important to them. Tumelo, in partnership with Fidelity, is responsible for the technical build of the Hub, as well as collaborating with fund managers to obtain and maintain accurate stewardship data and statistics.

Anne-Marie Brennan, Platform CIO and Head of Products, Fidelity International, commented: “The creation of the Stewardship Hub in partnership with Tumelo emphasises Fidelity’s wider commitment to helping clients achieve their ESG targets while meeting their regulatory obligations via pioneering solutions. A market-first, this centralised Hub enables better visibility, analysis and communication between fund managers and trustees, ultimately benefiting the thousands of members who look to their pension providers to represent their voices.”

Kim Nash, Independent Chair of the Trustees, Fidelity Master Trust, commented: “Tumelo is already well-known in the pensions industry for giving investors a transparent view of the companies they own and a shareholder voice on issues they care about. By working together, Fidelity and Tumelo have been able to take this one step further by creating a bespoke Stewardship Hub, giving trustees the ability to interact with the stewardship approaches of their fund managers and ensuring the prioritisation of member outcomes.”

Georgia Stewart, CEO, Tumelo, commented: “Working with Fidelity to create the Stewardship Hub has allowed Tumelo to bring a new experience for institutional investors and especially pension trustees. This innovation will enable Fidelity’s clients to align with new and enhanced policies such as the Implementation Statement, the Stewardship Code, and the latest recommendations from the United Nations and the UK Government. We are excited to evolve this product to further improve communication and collaboration between fund managers, asset owners and beneficiaries on stewardship.”