NYC Pensions to Begin Requiring Staff Demographic Data From Managers

New York City’s pension funds will begin asking managers and other service providers to hand over data on the demographics of their staff, according to city Comptroller Scott Stringer.

The new policy is part of an effort to allocate more pension assets to managers with a diverse investment staff. Stringer said on Friday that diversity has to be a “living, breathing part of how we do business.”

From ai-cio.com:

“For the first time—working with trustees—we’re asking firms that want our business to give us hard data about the composition of their investment teams and professionals,” he told to audience of investment professionals, internal staff, and media.

This information, gathered by surveys, is to become a formal criterion for determining which managers are most likely to outperform on a long-term risk-adjusted basis. The many consultants that assist in manager selection have likewise been instructed to consider diversity as a meaningful attribute.

“We’re doing this to add value to our funds, and the new information will help us select managers in the future,” Stringer continued. “Let me stress: This is a game-changing expansion of our commitment to opportunity.”

The city’s retirement systems collectively manage around $160 billion in pension assets.

Photo by Tim (Timothy) Pearce via Flickr CC License