Scottish Widows moved £2.1 billion ($3.35 billion) total to passive equity strategies linked to three FTSE RAFI indexes, confirmed spokeswoman Alison Robb.
“We see merit in the concept of fundamental indexing and felt that investments run to these indices could be beneficial to the funds,” Ms. Robb said in an e-mail.
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, a unit of Scottish Widows, is managing the funds. It is the first Research Affiliates index that the pension fund manager has used. The three indexes are the FTSE RAFI UK 300, FTSE RAFI Developed 1000 and FTSE RAFI Emerging Market.
Funding is coming from a variety of multiasset funds, Ms. Robb said. She could not provide additional information by press time.
According to a news release from FTSE, it is the largest investment ever from a U.K. institutional investor into the FTSE RAFI series. As of June 30, assets linked to FTSE RAFI indexes totaled $30 billion.
Scottish Widows oversees about £130 billion in assets.
