The first quarter of 2023 has been focused on setting our priorities for the coming twelve months as well as meeting regulatory reporting requirements, such as the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures report for Quilter plc, as well as our Stewardship Code report which we submit annually to the Financial Reporting Council.
We are in the process of designing thematic engagement frameworks for five key topics focused on our direct equity holdings. These are all linked to our three mega themes of climate change, human rights and natural capital. More on these will follow over the coming year. For our holdings in third-party funds and investment trusts we are also developing and continuing thematic engagements. I had the pleasure of speaking at the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) annual conference in early March; the audience was primarily non-executive directors of investment trusts. The invitation resulted from our engagement with the AIC regarding our collaborative work with Quilter Investors, which is focused on board composition and responsible investment-related disclosure. We intend to publish our first phase of research on this in Q2 which will be focused on investment trusts operating in the equity sector.