List of institutional investors in the United Kingdom
This is a list of institutional investors in the United Kingdom. Institutional investors manage other people's money by buying shares in companies, corporate bonds, gilts (i.e. government debt), commodities, foreign currencies, or combinations of each, or derivatives of them (i.e. options to buy, or futures). The main kinds of UK institutional investors are,
- pension funds (where beneficiaries are saving for retirement)
- insurance companies (where policyholders are insuring against risk, most importantly life insurance: effectively also a pension)
- mutual funds (including investment companies, investment trusts, or unit trusts, where people are saving surplus wealth for any purpose)
- sovereign wealth funds (government funds, often for saving wealth generated by natural resources)
Sovereign wealth funds are a recent addition, and grew following the Asian financial crisis from 1997, becoming important investors in the London Stock Exchange. Fund managers (usually known as investment advisers in the US), who typically belong to the same organisations as those running large mutual funds, play a critical role because normally the "primary" institutional investors delegate investment choices and corporate governance decisions to the fund manager. UK banks do not traditionally play an important role as institutional investors, as they do for instance in Germany.
The Institutional Investor Committee represents the interests of the NAPF, ABI, IMA, AITC and the British Merchant Banking and Securities House Association.
Mutual funds
Representing the mutual fund and fund management industry is primarily the Investment Management Association (established in 2002, merging the Institutional Fund Managers Association and the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds). The Association of Investment Companies is also a representation body, with an overlapping membership, but includes only businesses dealing in closed end investment companies.
These are the largest fund managers according to billions of pounds of assets under management.
| Name | est. | AUM £bn | Description | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal & General | 1836 | 25,223 | British multinational financial services company based in London. | lgim.com | |
| UBS Global Asset Management | 12,353 | Investment branch of UBS AG, a Swiss global financial services company. | ubs.com | ||
| BlackRock | 1988 | 10,142 | US firm, and world's largest asset manager, formed by Larry Fink and Robert S. Kapito who previously worked at First Boston. | blackrock.com | |
| Baillie Gifford | 1907 | 9,439 | British multinational asset management company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. | bailliegifford.com | |
| Schroders | 1804 | 6,994 | British multinational asset management company. | schroders.com | |
| State Street Global Advisors | 1978 | 4,806 | Founded as part of the State Street Corporation (est 1792), and the world's second largest asset manager. | ssga.com | |
| Newton Investment Management | 4,696 | newton.co.uk | |||
| Capital International | 1931 | 4,099 | US fund manager. | capgroup.com | |
| Aberdeen Asset Management | 1983 | 3,628 | Listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1991. | abderdeen-asset.com | |
| Standard Life Investments | 1825 | 3,175 | Demutualised and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006. | www.standardlife.com | |
| Allianz Global Investors | A part of Allianz SE, German financial services company. | www.allianzgi.com | |||
| Investec Bank | .com | ||||
| Threadneedle Asset Management | Acquired by Ameriprise Financial in 2003. | .com | |||
| Henderson Global Investors | .com | ||||
| T Rowe Price | .com | ||||
| Fidelity Worldwide Investment | .com | ||||
| M&G Securities Ltd | .com | ||||
| Barclays Wealth | .com | ||||
| Invesco Perpetual | .com | ||||
Pension funds
The Association of Member Nominated Trustees and the National Association of Pension Funds are the umbrella bodies representing the interests of pension funds collectively. The number of pension funds largely mirrors the number of companies, as pensions have often not merged on an industry-wide basis.[1] Many pension funds for local councils fall within the umbrella group of the Local Government Pension Scheme, but as yet there is no consolidated management.
| Name | est. | AUM £bn | Description | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BT Pension Scheme | 39.6 | ||||
| Universities Superannuation Scheme | 38.6 | ||||
| Royal Mail Pension Plan | |||||
| Electricity Supply Pension Scheme | |||||
| Mineworkers Pension Scheme | |||||
| RBS Group Pension Fund | |||||
| Railways Pension Scheme | |||||
| Barclays Bank UK Retirement Fund | |||||
| BP Pension Fund | |||||
| National Grid UK Pension Scheme | |||||
| British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme | |||||
| Shell Contributory Pension Fund | |||||
| Greater Manchester Pension Fund | 12.6 | ||||
| Strathclyde Pension Fund | |||||
| British Steel Pension Scheme | |||||
| Lloyds TSB Group Pension Scheme | |||||
| BBC Pension Trust Ltd | |||||
| West Midlands Pension Fund | |||||
| HBOS Final Salary Pension Scheme | |||||
| GSK Pension Schemes | .com | ||||
| ICI Pension Fund | |||||
| Rolls-Royce Pension Fund | .com | ||||
| BA New Airways Pension Scheme | .com | ||||
| BAE Systems Pension Scheme | .com | ||||
| West Yorkshire Pension Scheme | .com | ||||
| British Airways Pension Scheme | |||||
| HSBC Bank UK Pension Scheme | .com | ||||
| Aviva Staff Pension Scheme | .com | ||||
| Co-operative Group Pension Scheme (Pace) | |||||
Insurance companies
The Association of British Insurers is the umbrella body for UK insurance companies.
| Name | est. | AUM £bn | Description | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal & General | .com | ||||
| Aviva | .com | ||||
| Prudential | .com | ||||
| Old Mutual | .com | ||||
| Standard Life | .com | ||||
| Resolution | .com | ||||
| Phoenix | .com | ||||
| AEGON UK | .com | ||||
| XL Group | .com | ||||
| St.James's Place | .com | ||||
| RSA Insurance Group | .com | ||||
| QBE Insurance | .com | ||||
| Direct Line Insurance | .com | ||||
| NFU Mutual | .com | ||||
| FM Global | .com | ||||
| AXA | .com | ||||
| Royal London Asset Management | .com | ||||
| Allianz SE | .com | ||||
| Friends Life | .com | ||||
| Zurich Insurance | .com | ||||
| Royal London Group | .com | ||||
| Hiscox | .com | ||||
| Lloyds Banking Group | .com | ||||
| Association of British Insurers | 1985 | The ABI is the insurance industry lobbying and coordination body, with around 400 members. | www.tuc.org.uk |
See also
- UK labour law and UK company law
- List of unions, and in the UK, Germany and the US
- List of largest United Kingdom employers
- FTSE 100 and FT 30, S&P 100, HDAX and DAX
- List of hedge funds
- List of private equity firms