Sunday, December 08, 2013

Social Impact Investing: LAPFF 2013

Brian Bailey, Chair of PIRC and former senior member of LAPFF speaking about the 5 large Local Government Pension funds (LGPS) that are investigating a possible £250 million Social Impact investment.

Cllr Kieran Quinn explained what is social impact investing. It is the use of repayable finance to produce social and financial returns. Such as health, well being, better employment and improved social problems.

LAPFF sponsored a report  in 2012 by the Smith Institute on such investments. I think that most people would think that this is a "good thing" to invest in something has has a financial and social return but there are "challenges".

Small investment funds mean relatively high costs in fees and supervision. It is more risky than conventional investment and there are possible conflicts of interest if you invest a Council pension fund in your own locality.

A shared service approach is believed to be the best way of overcoming these risks and the need to make sure that there is a commercial return and to pass due diligence. Watch this space.

I went to the GIIN investor conference in October on what they called "Impact Investment".

Hat tip LAPFF twitter for photo.

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