Stewardship and engagement

New findings from Amundi show that there is considerable appetite among savers to understand how pension managers are driving positive change.

General awareness of pension managers’ stewardship activities is low in Ireland, however. This presents pension managers with a significant opportunity to add value, by communicating how their company engagements have the potential to benefit society and the environment. 

Despite these findings, awareness of pension managers’ ability to engage with the organisations they invest in – for example, by voting at shareholder meetings or otherwise influencing company policies – remains low.

At the same time, only a third of savers (35%) say they know that investment and pension managers can engage with and influence companies through shareholder meetings and other forms of direct engagement. Again, younger people are more clued in, with 54% of the 18- to 34-year-old age group saying they have some knowledge of this type of engagement. Among those savers who have set up their own personal pension rather than relying on an employer-run scheme, awareness is also above average (43%). Overall, however, six in 10 savers (59%) are unaware that such interaction is possible, and this figure rises to 67% of the over-55s. 

When it comes to specific types of engagement, a minority of investors say they know what activities their pension managers are involved in. A fifth (19%) say their pension manager engages with company leadership to change policies or improve corporate practices, for example by encouraging transparency over executive pay or environmental activities. Meanwhile, 16% say their pension manager votes at company meetings, and the same percentage (16%) report that their pension manager collaborates with other organisations such as environmental or shareholder groups to exert wider influence on company policies.

Despite this current low level of awareness about pension-manager engagement, there is a clear appetite to learn.

Among all pension savers, almost three-quarters (73%) say they would like to receive more information from their investment managers about issues such as engagement, voting and general influence. Just under a third (30%) would like to be sent detailed descriptions of this activity while 46% say they would be satisfied with a regular summary report. More than eight in 10 under-35s (83%) would like to receive such information, compared with two-thirds (67%) of the over-55s.

The availability of information on stewardship, engagement and influence – as well as the specifics of such practices – has the potential to play a pivotal role in investors’ choice of pension manager, our research shows. Almost two-thirds (63%) of savers in Ireland say that more insight into stewardship activity would be important when they decide where to invest their pension. Almost a quarter (23%) say this would be a ‘very important’ factor while only 15% say it would not play a central role in their choice of provider.

The relevance of stewardship information in choosing a provider is highest among the under-35s: 81% of this group say this would be an important factor, with 27% of those aged between 18 and 34 describing it as ‘very important’. However, just over half (53%) of the over-55s say this would be an important factor in their choice of provider.

Michael Curran, Head of Institutional Business at Amundi Ireland, says:

“These findings demonstrate that there is a significant perception gap in terms of savers’ understanding of the valuable work investment managers can do in driving positive change. But the research also shows that investors are very keen to learn more about pension managers’ stewardship and engagement activities, whether this involves voting at AGMs or meeting directly with management teams to influence policies and operations”.

Curran adds: 

“It is also very interesting that investors see information about stewardship as an important factor in their choice of provider – and this is particularly the case among those younger savers who are likely to be contributing to their pensions for many decades to come."

At Amundi, we take pride in the work we do to promote beneficial change in the companies we invest in. We take a proactive approach to engaging with businesses and, in particular, helping them to take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in all areas of their operations. We believe that this kind of interaction can not only help address investors’ concerns around ESG and sustainability, but also be a source of progress towards more resilient business models. But this sort of progress relies, at least in part, on pension savers themselves asking how their money is being used to
drive positive change. 

The findings highlighted in this report make it clear that there is currently a significant untapped opportunity for pension managers in Ireland: firstly, to explain that they are constantly engaging with companies as part of their ongoing management responsibilities and, secondly, to set out the real-world, beneficial impacts that their engagement and stewardship activities have had.

Amundi has decades of experience in helping pension managers to develop, implement and communicate responsible investment strategies, and we are ideally placed to help pension firms seize the opportunities highlighted by this research*.

*Research carried out with a nationally representative sample of 1,022 adults between January 9 and 15, 2025.