Despite being signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment, the RI disclosures of Europe's largest asset managers are extremely varied in quality, according to new research by advocacy group, ShareAction.

ShareAction rated the disclosures of 40 leading fund managers which collectively invest over €21 trillion (£18 trillion) on behalf of pension schemes, charities, universities, and individuals across the world. All but one - Santander Asset Management are PRI signatories.

With a top possible score of 90 points, the top five disclosures, according to ShareAction's framework, come from Schroder Investment Management (82), Robeco Group (81), Aviva Investors (80), Amundi (77.5), and Standard Life Investments (76.5). The lowest scoring firms, according to the report, are Deutsche Asset Management (15), KBC Asset Management (14), Union Investment (14), SEB (13), and BBVA Asset Management (10).

Catherine Howarth, Chief Executive of ShareAction said: “The leaders in this year’s report should be applauded for their stewardship of client assets as well as for the quality of information disclosed on investment costs, handling of conflicts of interest, and real-world impacts of responsible investment practice. Transparency in the asset management sector is critical to restoring public trust in an industry that invests the savings of millions of European citizens.

Our research exposes a huge gulf between the firms. This places a big responsibility on pension funds and other institutional clients to undertake rigorous due diligence on the factors assessed in this survey, all of which have a bearing on the interests of beneficiaries such as pension savers.

The research assessed the fund managers on their transparency, including the accessibility of information about voting and engagement with investee companies, conflicts of interest policies, and disclosure of investment fees and charges. ShareAction said that all the managers were also sent a questionnaire allowing them to explain in more detail how their investment process incorporates environmental, social and governance factors that are relevant to investment performance. There were responses from 31 out of 40 managers (77.5%) providing more information to improve the scoring.

The research found that eight asset managers (20%) provided a full list of companies engaged with over the year; seven  asset managers (17.5%) went beyond the minimum legal requirements, and attempted to provide additional explanations of potential direct or indirect fees and charges on their website.

ShareAction said that this year the survey included questions on measuring the tangible impact of European asset managers’ investment decisions including their stewardship work, to reflect the growing interest by clients and the investing public in this area. However, only two asset managers, Natixis and Robeco provided comprehensive detail on the impacts of their investments.

However ShareAction said that most of the top ranked managers seem to be aware of the need for a demonstration of the added-value of their activities and of the asset management sector as a whole. The group is encouraging Europe’s leading asset managers to work collaboratively to establish a methodology for demonstrating stewardship outcomes and investment impact more broadly.