Agenda item

To receive a verbal presentation.

The Board received a presentation from Sandeep Bhamra (Executive Director and Client Advisor in the Endowments & Foundations Group) and Ali El Idrissi (Vice President in J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance Group) from J.P. Morgan, after which Members of the Board had the opportunity to ask questions.

Mr El Idrissi gave an overview of the work JP Morgan was doing in the social investment market, and introduced ‘impact investing’, a way to bridge traditional investing and philanthropic activities. Mr El Idrissi confirmed that the global social investment market was relatively small, but conversations were ongoing to promote opportunities to unlock further capital and develop the market. In response to a Member’s question, Mr El Idrissi advised that Europe, particularly northern Europe, had a stronger social investment market than Northern America, which was more focussed on philanthropy targeted to business solutions.

With regard to the issue of trade-off between financial and social return, Mr El Idrissi advised that it was not productive question. Instead, if a company wanted to invest in company providing a particular social impact, they should do that with little or no regard to alleged trade-offs between social impact and financial return. Board Members accepted this might be true for larger organisations such as JP Morgan, but highlighted the aims of the City of London Corporation’s Social Investment Fund and the need to ensure appropriate balance given the fiduciary duty of City of London as Trustee. Investments could be made into companies with a large social impact and small financial return, but this was part of portfolio management rather than a stand-alone investment.

Mr El Idrissi concluded that JP Morgan would welcome a closer working relationship with the Corporation, and the Board asked officers to continue these discussions outside of the meeting. The Chairman thanked Mr Bhamra and Mr El Idrissi for their presentation.

Master Mercer, Mr Tim Haywood, and Head of Finance at the Mercers’ Company, Trevor Sykes, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to attend the meeting, and advised Board Members that the Mercers’ Company was looking to become involved in social investment market. Although this was a new venture for them, the Mercers were looking to forge links with the City of London Corporation and learn from their experiences.

RESOLVED – That the presentation be noted.