Frances Agirc-Arrco Cuts Deficit, Adopts SRI Charter

Agirc-Arrco is a pay-as-you-go scheme, but has €60.6bn of reserves. The scheme is targeting a return to financial equilibrium in 2020.

It also announced a new SRI charter for its reserves, as requested by the social partners. The charter was also in line with commitments made as part of an official agreement struck in late 2017 and “the principles underpinning complementary retirement provision”.

Agirc-Arrco indicated that it aimed to sign up to the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment.

According to the scheme, the integration of environmental, social and corporate governance factors “generates the long-term creation of societal values” by weighing in on companies’ behaviour with a view to improving corporate social responsibility policies.

In a presentation pack, the scheme said the approach did not introduce any factor that would negatively impact investment returns and could in fact strengthen performance over a long period.

The SRI charter defined the main pillars of the scheme’s general investment policy, it said.

In addition to obtaining the financial performance necessary for efficient multi-year management of an unfunded pension scheme, the investment strategy would also aim to “contribute to preserving the natural environment and well-being”, and “encourage social progress”.

Agirc-Arrco has 18m members and 1.7m employers. The scheme pays out more than €79bn annually to pensioners.

L’Agirc-Arrco adopte une charte pour l’investissement socialement responsable #ISR de ses réserves https://t.co/ChNcJAXqy9 pic.twitter.com/JvqTqNmdjE

— Agirc-Arrco (@AgircArrco) June 27, 2019