News in brief - 11 March 2022

Scottish Widows has announced plans to boost environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration in its default strategy.

The provider has rebranded its Corporate Bond Tracker, which represents £3.6bn in assets, to the Scottish Widows’ ESG Sterling Corporate Bond Tracker Fund. From March 2022, the fund will track a recently launched ESG bond index from iBoxx, applying a set of ESG screens to the standard iBoxx GBP non-gilts index to reduce the funds carbon footprint. Issuers who will be screened out include those involved in activities such as nuclear weapons, firearms, tobacco, fossil fuel extractives, and violators of global norms.

Now Pensions has become the first workplace pension provider to sign up to the BBC 50:50 equality project.

The initiative was started by the BBC and works to support organisations around the world to create content that fairly represents the society we live in today by sharing detailed methodology and best practices on this. Now Pensions CEO, Patrick Luthi, also highlighted being part of the initiative as “testament to the hard work [Now Pensions] have done to highlight inequalities and campaigning for real change that delivers results”.

Phoenix Group has revealed a new visual identity for its corporate brand.

The introduction of the new visual branding was identified as an “important milestone in Phoenix Group’s evolution” and a reflection of the group’s purpose. As part of the branding strategy, the group has also introduced an endorsement approach to show a visible connection across its consumer brands, which include Standard Life and SunLife. This is expected to help enhance the collective strength of Phoenix Group as a whole, and make it clear that these brands are part of the group.

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