Augmenting Alignment: Investor & Issuer Forum Creates Collaborative Compass

19 December 2025

By Jack Grogan-Fenn

The Investor & Issuer Forum (I&IF) has launched the Investor & Issuer Compass, a “clear practical guide” to support “effective engagement” in UK listed equites and improve outcomes for companies, investors and the UK market.

The compass sets specific market-agreed conditions for alignment that make interactions more predictable, transparent and constructive. By helping market practitioners navigate a busy and complex environment, it supports more effective engagement, reduces avoidable friction and reinforces the “foundations for sustainable long-term value”.

Key Client Takeaways:

Enhancing Engagement and Alignment

• The I&IF compass provides a practical, market‑agreed guide to improve engagement between companies, investors and asset owners. It aims to make interactions more predictable, transparent, and constructive, reduce friction and reinforce long‑term value creation.

Reinforcement, Not Replacement

• The I&IF have stressed that the compass does not introduce new reporting burdens. Instead, it connects and supports principles already embedded in the UK Corporate Governance Code and the UK Stewardship Code, helping market participants build trust and align expectations.

Cross‑industry Collaboration

• The compass was developed for more than a year with senior leaders from asset owners, asset managers, companies and major industry bodies. It creates a shared frame for dialogue and enhances education and capability‑building across stewardship and investor relations functions.

The I&IF’s compass is intended to offer a practical guide to help navigate the UK liquid equities markets landscape. It will be used to anchor engagement discussions between boards, investors and asset owners, create a shared frame for cross-industry dialogue and support education and capability-building across boards, IR teams and stewardship professionals, among other functions.

The compass has three key aims for participants. These are to: focus engagement on financially material drivers of value; build a shared understanding of good engagement; facilitate decision-useful dialogue and navigate areas where expectations diverge; and improve transparency and alignment between asset owners, asset managers and companies.

The I&IF stresses that the compass does not introduce a new framework, pledge or reporting burden. It rather reinforces and connects the market principles already embedded in the UK Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Corporate Governance Code for Issuers and Stewardship Code for Investors, and other industry standards, to improve alignment, build trust and make interactions more effective.

The compass has been in development for more than a year. It has involved intensive engagement undertaken by the I&IF with its Steering Committee and senior leaders representing asset owners, asset managers and companies and their industry bodies – Pensions UK, the Investment Association, the Investor Forum, the Confederation of British Industry and the Investor Relations Society.

“The UK equity market has deep strengths - deep expertise, open access and dialogue between boards and investors, transparent information flows and trusted governance frameworks,” said Sallie Pilot, Managing Director at the I&IF. “The compass simply brings these strengths into one place. It’s not duplicating existing frameworks; it’s a reference point that reminds us what good looks like, and a guide to help us work together more confidently and coherently.”

Elizabeth Fernando, CIO at UK workplace pension scheme Nest said that the compass “creates a strong foundation for better alignment and connection across this investment chain, which will be key to helping deliver stronger outcomes for all UK savers”.

In October, Minerva Analytics was second proxy advisor featured in the I&IF’s Proxy Advisor Showcase which the I&IF said “shone a light on how investors actually use proxy advisors, the range of services they provide, and how this part of the market operates in practice”, as well as striving to “demystify the proxy advisory landscape”.

The I&IF was launched in September 2024 by the Investor Forum in response to recommendations put forward by the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce. It looks to complement the UK Financial Reporting Council’s efforts to enhance market stewardship and it is backed by the London Stock Exchange. By 2028, the organisation plans to develop a long-term business model that “ensur[es] sustainable impact that drives lasting impact”.

The FRC’s actions to enhance market stewardship include the 2026 UK Stewardship Code – its fourth version and first major update in six years – which comes into effect on 1 January 2026. Several key changes with notable implications have been made in the updated code which have been explored in a briefing published by Minerva Analytics this week. The FRC last month also published new reporting guidance on the stewardship code ahead of the new version coming into effect, as reported by Minerva Analytics. Minerva will be hosting a webinar on 15 January 2026 to discuss our recently published stewardship code briefing.

Pensions UK – which was involved in the created of the collaborative compass – has this week published its 2026 Stewardship and Voting Guidelines. The organisation considered the key trends from 2025 and outlined how that has shaped its approach to updating this year’s guidelines. To do this, Pensions UK used Minerva Analytics’ 2025 Proxy Season Review - released in October – which it described as “excellent”. We also hosted a webinar discussing some of the reports key findings which can be viewed here.

Minerva’s blog focuses on the latest developments in ESG investing and stewardship. Minerva is a global provider of sustainable stewardship solutions with over 25 years of expertise. Minerva empowers investors by providing essential tools, including ESG research and data, enabling them to navigate the intricate landscape of stewardship and proxy voting, whilst ensuring their decisions are well-informed and aligned with sustainable principles.

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