EVestment is making its money manager diversity and inclusion data available free of charge to investors, in efforts to improve transparency and standardization across the industry.
The institutional investment data and analytics firm wants to provide an efficient and streamlined process for diversity disclosure, it said Tuesday. More than 20% of the money managers tracked by eVestment — representing 6,182 strategies — have responded to its diversity and inclusion data collection program since January. Reporting is voluntary.
"The investment community is on a journey in creating a more inclusive environment and ensuring that asset managers hired by pensions, foundations, family offices and endowments better reflect the diversity of asset owners and the end beneficiaries," Lauren Dillard, executive vice president and head of investment intelligence at eVestment parent company Nasdaq, said in the release. "Institutional investors representing trillions of dollars in assets already leverage eVestment for data and analytics. Our mission is to build on that community to further the industry progress in diversity and inclusion."
EVestment's D&I questionnaire was updated in January as part of an industry-wide D&I data collection initiative, known as the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative. The questionnaire gives managers the option of highlighting qualitative and quantitative aspects of their diversity and inclusion efforts.
Owner Nasdaq is also working with the Institutional Limited Partners Association to create a standardized approach for making data from private money managers available to limited partners. Such data will show diversity of leadership and decision-making at the manager and portfolio company levels.
EVestment's latest data collection initiative, as of June 17, showed that 55.3% of key professionals at managers reporting data are white males, followed by 12.15% Asian males and 9.43% white females. Black males made up 1.86% of key professionals and Black females just 0.59%.
Across the 322 strategies at 48 firms that reported data to eVestment, some decision-makers are military veterans. Figures were not available.
Also, 288 firms said they have mentorship programs in place for women and minorities, while 244 have a pay parity policy.
However, eVestment said that in developing its questionnaire, it recognized that various U.S. and international laws may not allow for the reporting of diversity statistics. Eighty-seven firms said they cannot supply diversity and inclusion data due to firm policy, while 74 cannot due to privacy regulations and laws in their area.
Also, small teams may prefer to keep information private as providing diversity statistics could highlight information that could personally identify individuals. In such cases, commentary sections in the questionnaire are important.
Investors interested in accessing the data should email eVestment or visit the firm's website.
