Corporate social responsibility | Insight Investment

• Our markets – we seek to protect client interests and operate our business with integrity and resilience
• Our people – we seek to encourage effective leadership, well-being, diversity and inclusion for our staff
• Our world – we seek to invest and act responsibly to protect the wider world and, locally, to support the community including through the sponsorship of the arts and sciences and charitable partnerships.

On this page, we take a deeper look at what this means in practice.

We seek to achieve our goals through robust risk management and governance and aim for forward-looking identification and assessment of potential risks considering both quantitative and qualitative impacts. This takes the form of clear reporting and escalation processes to ensure that the residual risk profile of the firm is appropriate and in line with the Board's risk appetite and timely setting and regular monitoring of actions required to reduce the risk profile or improve the control environment where these are deemed appropriate.

We believe seeking to understand and mitigate systemic risks within our clients’ investments and the wider financial system is directly relevant for most of our clients, whether we are managing risk management (including liability driven investment), fixed income, or another type of strategy on their behalf.

To read more about Insight’s efforts to advocate on behalf of our clients on a range of issues, please click here.

We aim to develop successful leaders and managers who drive high productivity and engagement within their teams while challenging ourselves and our recruitment partners to ensure we have the right initiatives in place to encourage the promotion and development of a diverse workforce.

Insight’s employees are critical stakeholders in the business.  New joiners receive induction training and the opportunity to meet the CEO and the Head of Human Resources.  This typically takes place a few weeks after joining Insight which gives new joiners the opportunity to review how Insight does things and make suggestions of how things could be improved, which is then taken on board by HR representatives. 

Insight is a strong believer in employee development delivering a range of training programs designed to encourage employee and manager development at all levels. Our challenging environment provides the right conditions for employees to hone their skills and expertise and develop within the business.

Insight recognises that diversity of thought, talent and experience is critical to the continued success of our business, industry and society.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are strategic priorities at Insight. We believe that having a workforce that reflects the broader society in which we operate enhances the way we think, adds significant value to decision making and is the right thing to do. No gender, ethnicity, or other social group has a monopoly on good ideas and talent. When recruiting we cast the net wide to attract the very best people from the broadest demographics and backgrounds possible. Hiring diverse talent into our inclusive and collaborative culture enables us to achieve a significant competitive advantage through our people.

There are a clear set of values embedded within Insight’s culture:

• Client Focus: Insight’s clients always come first and we combine this perspective with an environment for our employees that promotes a culture of innovation, collaboration, diversity and inclusion.
• Accountability: We foster a strong culture of ownership, providing our staff autonomy and trust from the start, allowing them to make their own decisions that impact our business.
• Teamwork: We create a culture of camaraderie and trust in our business. We focus on getting the right people with the right expertise and combining them in a diverse team to work together to deliver results.
• Cognitive Agility: We are inquisitive, skilled in analysing information and forming an opinion and then we take the initiative to act.
• Continuous Improvement: We maintain a questioning attitude and are not afraid to speak up and challenge conventional thinking or the status quo.

Click here to learn more about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Insight

We support a global charity partner that has been voted for by colleagues, who then also take part in fundraising and volunteering. We have addressed the use of single use plastic in the office and encourage colleagues to recycle more and reduce waste from printers.

Charity committee

The Insight Charity Committee comprises members from across the business who meet monthly to deliver events and initiatives that bring colleagues together while raising money for charities. Its mission is to promote team camaraderie through giving, raising awareness, engagement and volunteerism.

Charity partner: We have a relationship with a global charity partner which is reviewed on a periodic basis. The charity is selected on the following criteria.

Our current partner is the Make-A-Wish Foundation which grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Each of our offices support a local chapter. 

One of the ways in which the Charity Committee supports Make-A-Wish has been through its annual Global FIT Challenge. The initiative aims to keep Insight active by challenging colleagues to collectively ‘travel’ the 27,518 miles which separate our offices. Participants make a one-off donation and then log the miles that they walk, swim, cycle, run and workout to, sharing updates with their Insight teammates.

Matched funding and support: for employees and initiatives in scope, BNY Mellon provides dollar matching on team and individual fundraising projects and volunteering events, including donations via salary sacrifice and board service. Employees are entitled to two paid volunteer days each year which can be used for our charity partner or for an organisation of their choice.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we wished to offer our support and thanks to all the front-line workers. We made a donation to support Insight’s UK event catering partners, Rocket Food, in providing meals for key workers in the NHS. As part of the #FuelforNHSHeroes’ campaign, Rocket staff were volunteering to run this service. We also made a donation to the New York Chapter of Frontline Foods, a charity that was helping local restaurants to provide healthy meals to frontline workers who led the response to the pandemic. 

Environmental initiatives

Supporting public awareness of the arts

We are very proud to work in partnership with the Royal Academy as the lead sponsor of its Summer Exhibition, the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show. 2023 will be our 17th year as sponsor and the 255th consecutive year in which the RA has mounted the Summer Exhibition. In 2022 the Royal Academy received over 15,000 entries, of which around 1200 works, in a range of media, were put on display. This open, inclusive and democratic show supports the artistic community, art education and provides a display of creativity and joy for the public.

Read more

Tackling impersonation fraud

Insight is very alert to the threat posed by criminals who masquerade as authorised investment firms in their attempts to defraud investors. We have seen cases where fraudsters have misused our brand, recreated fake versions of our materials and have impersonated members of our staff in their efforts to deceive investors. This sadly sometimes results in individuals sharing their identity documents and remitting funds to fraudsters accounts. Fraudsters can be very convincing, and investors have lost significant sums of money because of the activities of these criminals. Impersonation fraud is an international concern and we have seen attempts to misuse our brand originate from multiple geographies.

• Insight is therefore very active in identifying and reporting attempts to misuse our name as well as doing what is possible to close fraudulent email domains and websites down.
• As a responsible member of the investment community, we also work to raise awareness of the threat of fraud.
• Insight has controls established around all shared contact emails to ensure incoming fraud enquiries are logged and that investors receive timely responses confirming that the contact made to the investor is not us.
• Insight also issues regular reminders through its social media accounts and regularly updates its web notices, for example with advice for investors about how to avoid impersonation fraud.
• We encourage investors who are concerned that they have been contacted by fraudsters to report to the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) and to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre. We also ask them to tell us about it directly, in as much detail as they can, via fraud@insightinvestment.com.
• More broadly, we advise that it is also worth discussing fraud risks with your family and friends and the more vulnerable members of our society in particular. The following sites have good resources for advice on avoiding investment and pension scams: Action Fraud, FCA ScamSmart and Which? Consumer Rights.
• We firmly believe this growing problem can only be properly addressed through urgent government action and targeted legislation, focused on increasing the accountability of search engines for the content they host. Our view is that the scale of the problem is significantly greater due to victims being unwilling to report fraud or being unaware that they have been defrauded. The lack of enforcement against these scams leads us to expect the situation to deteriorate. Insight made these concerns plain to legislators in relation to the Online Safety Bill.
• Enhanced brand protection services to prevent fraud: In 2019 we enhanced our ability to challenge online frauds targeting the general public and Insight contacts by adding an online brand protection service to identify groups seeking to use Insight’s trademarks and identity to mislead contacts and commit financial fraud. Several fraudulent enterprises have been identified and shut down and ongoing monitoring of the digital landscape has been enhanced as an early warning system.
• Insight places great importance on the integrity of its information processing and has a low appetite for information risk. As well as its own operational requirements, Insight commits to protecting clients’ information and individual privacy to the highest standards. The Information Security Management System (ISMS) operates in a governance structure which is visible and accessible to the firm’s senior management. To provide assurance to clients, regulators and others that management of these priorities is aligned with the best modern practice, with the appetite of the firm, and the needs of stakeholders, Insight has chosen to obtain and maintain public certification of compliance with the relevant standards, obtaining and retaining certification to ISO 27001 (Information Security) since 2008, and ISO 22301 (Business Continuity) since 2012.

CSR report

BNY Mellon uses its resources and expertise to create positive social impact. For more information please read its ESG Enterprise Report for 2021, available for download here.

Contact us

Please contact Sarah Hale: 

+44 (0)20 7321 1311

Click here to email Sarah Hale