The story of pensions is the story of democratic capitalism: of its promises and of its disappointments. It is the story of the great power now wielded by an unaccountable fund-management industry. Like all institutional shareholders, the Raith Foundation finds itself on the margins of this powerful industry. The absence of appropriate stewardship targeting long-term value-creation for all stakeholders has produced too many losers and too few winners. Our deep concerns about the management of the country’s wealthiest pension fund, the Government Employees Pension Fund, by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) must be seen in this context. The global and local pension story of the past 30 years is a chilling account of how fortunes have been made in the financial sector at the expense of tens of millions of vulnerable workers. It is the story of cynical claims of responsible investment by layers of rent-seeking financial advisers who have achieved little more than exacerbate the gr...
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