This event has now taken place but you can watch the video recording of it through our Youtube Channel, get to it by clicking the button below
When
Tuesday, September 28th from 6pm to 8pm UK time"Where
Online symposium via Zoom.Format
There'll be a great line-up of speakers plus ample scope for discussion and debate.Why you should attend
Almost all pension funds are haemorrhaging value because of the sub-optimal execution of voluntary corporate actions, such as scrip dividends.
It’s a big problem for pension funds, and something of a “secret issue” that the Transparency Task Force is keen to shine a light on. We believe that far too few pensions, investment and governance professionals know about the issue in sufficient detail, even though it’s causing material detriment to quite literally thousands of pension schemes and millions of pension savers.
We have a first-class line-up of speakers, who are going to be explaining this complex and technical issue in straightforward terms, focusing on what should be done about the problem. They’ll be explaining the nature of the problem, the opportunity for schemes to stop haemorrhaging value moving forward and the relevance of this topic to a wide range of stakeholders; not just pension scheme trustees.
We believe this is going to be a particularly interesting and educational session that has the potential to reward attendees’ investment in time many times over.
Our hope and expectation, is that delegates will come away with some fresh insights and a valuable list of implementable ideas and action points including:
- What causes the “lost value” problem in the first place; and who is responsible for it
- The amount of money being lost by pension schemes in the UK and overseas
- The consequence of the compounding effect of these losses over time
- Why it’s so important we all frame the issue in a forward-thinking and solution-orientated way, as opposed to focusing on potential litigation/liability risks for trustees, custodians, asset managers, investment professionals, governance consultants, risk managers and so on
- The role that technology can play in providing an efficient and effective solution
- Why taking remedial action about the lost value problem is something of a “no-brainer” because the opportunity to evaluate the problem to you at no cost and at no risk, by “running the numbers” to evaluate the issue on a scheme-specific basis
Delegates can attend and just observe/listen to the presentations/conversations if you wish; but if you prefer you are very welcome to join in with the Q&A and discussions that follow each of the main presentations.
Here's the programme and timings so far...
—————————————-6:00pm BST—————————————-
Welcome to the symposium, introductions and initial exploration of the main issues; by
Andy Agathangelou
Founder, Transparency Task Force; Governor, Pensions Policy Institute; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Pension Scams; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Personal Banking and Fairer Financial Services; Chair of the Violation Tracker UK Advisory Board
—————————————-6:15pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #1, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Anna Tilba
Associate Professor in Strategy and Governance, Durham University Business School
Corporate Actions and Script Dividends_TTF Event 28 September 2021
—————————————-6:30pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #2, for 15 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Jeff Houston
Head of Pensions, Local Government Association
—————————————-6:55pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #3, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Jonny Ruck
CEO, Scorpeo
—————————————-7:10pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #4, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Sander Eijkendujin
COO, Scorpeo
—————————————-7:25pm BST—————————————-
The “Just a minute”-round
Inspired by the BBC Radio 4 programme, we have asked a selection of our attendees to spend just a minute sharing their thoughts on what has been covered during the symposium. But unlike the Radio 4 programme our speakers won’t be penalised for hesitation, repetition or deviation!
Speakers:
TBC
—————————————-7:30pm BST—————————————-
General discussion and debate, 25 minutes
—————————————-7:55pm BST—————————————-
Final conclusions; and suggested next steps and close to the formal proceedings.
___________________________________________________________________
*The programme will continuously evolve so is subject to change.
Anna Tilba
Associate Professor in Strategy and Governance, Durham University Business School
Dr. Anna Tilba is a researcher and a Lecturer in Strategy and Corporate Governance and a Director of Corporate Engagement at the Newcastle University Business School. She joined NUBS in 2012 from the University of Liverpool Management School where she obtained her PhD in corporate governance and where she was teaching Strategy both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Her research interests include pension fund investment, financial intermediation and networks, accountability, corporate governance and investor engagement. Anna has an emerging record of publications in top tier academic journals. She also reviews papers for such scholarly journals as Corporate Governance: An International Review, Organization Studies, European Management Review, Business History and her papers appear at various international conferences.
Anna has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries for the Law Commission. The Consultation Paper on Fiduciary Duties is commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and arises from the Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision-Making.
More recently, Anna has carried out research for the UK Financial Conduct Authority on the Effectiveness of the Oversight Committees as past of the FCA’s Asset Management Market Study
Furthermore, Anna is a member of the Transparency Task Force’s Costs & Charges Team and the International Best Practice Team; and she frquently participates at TTF events.
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Jeff Houston
Head Of Pensions, Local Government Association
Jeff has over 35 years’ experience in public sector pensions starting his career in Liverpool before moving to London where he held a variety of posts with Local Government Pension Scheme administering authorities.
In 2011 Jeff took on the role of Head of Pensions at the Local Government Association where he is responsible for the development of national and European policy for public service pensions in particular the funded Local Government and the unfunded Teachers, Firefighters and Police schemes. He is Secretary to the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board, sits on the LGA’s Local Government Pensions Committee and is a member of the CEEP European Social Protection Taskforce.
Jeff sits on several national bodies including the board of the Cost Transparency Initiative (CTI), the Pension Regulator’s Public Service Pensions Forum and CIPFA’s Pensions Panel. He is a regular conference speaker and chair.
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Jonny Ruck
CEO, Scorpeo
Jonny Ruck is co-founder and board member of the SCORPEO Group and CEO of SCORPEO US LLC.
Jonny has 15 years’ experience in all facets of corporate actions trading before founding SCORPEO.
He was the head of corporate event arbitrage for Nomura and his previous roles include corporate event trading at Paloma Partners and Lehman Brothers.
Jonny holds an LLB and LPC in Law from the University of East Anglia. Jonny is an FCA Approved Person.
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Sander Eijkenduijn
COO, Scorpeo
Sander is co-founder and COO of SCORPEO and currently runs their Boston office. SCORPEO is a data analytics and technology solutions company focused on missed value in voluntary corporate actions. SCORPEO provides solutions to asset managers, pension funds and custodians allowing them to capture this missed value and return it to their investors. Sander has done extensive work on the fiduciary responsibility of asset managers and pension funds to maximize their returns on corporate actions. Sander currently works with numerous US State pension funds identifying the value lost by their asset managers.
Before founding SCORPEO, Sander was responsible for Delta One Structuring at Nomura in London, having joined from Barclays Capital where he was Vice President. Sander began his career at PWC in Amsterdam. After seven years he moved to PWC in London as a senior manager in their financial services group. As an international tax and legal structuring expert, Sander’s clients mainly consisted of cross-border hedge funds and private equity funds. He also headed the Financing Sustainability initiative for FS Tax advising on investments in clean energy assets.
Sander holds a master’s degree in Dutch Tax Law from the University of Amsterdam, and a post-doctoral in European Tax Law from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has published various articles in Dutch law reviews and has been quoted by numerous Dutch tax courts. From 2004 to 2007 Sander was a part-time university lecturer on international tax law and tax treaty interpretation, first at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and later at Leiden University. Sander is an FCA Approved Person in the UK.
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