This is a list of institutional investors in the United Kingdom.

Institutional investors An institutional investor is an entity which pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linke ...

manage other people's money by buying shares in

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

, corporate bonds,

gilts Gilt-edged securities are bonds issued by the UK Government. The term is of British origin, and then referred to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England on behalf of His Majesty's Treasury, whose paper certificates had a gilt (or gilde ...

(i.e. government debt), commodities, foreign currencies, or combinations of each, or

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. F ...

s of them (i.e. options to buy, or

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

). The main kinds of UK institutional investors are, * pension funds (where beneficiaries are saving for retirement) *

insurance companies Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

(where policyholders are insuring against risk, most importantly

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

: effectively also a pension) *

mutual fund A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV i ...

s (including investment companies, investment trusts, or unit trusts, where people are saving surplus wealth for any purpose) *

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such ...

s (government funds, often for saving wealth generated by natural resources) Sovereign wealth funds are a recent addition, and grew following the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...

from 1997, becoming important investors in the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

Fund manager Fund may refer to: * Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money, or other values such as effort or time, for a project, a person, a business, or any other private or public institution ** The process of soliciting and gathe ...

s (usually known as

investment adviser A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

s in the US), who typically belong to the same organisations as those running large mutual funds, play a critical role because normally the "primary" institutional investors delegate investment choices and

corporate governance Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context (such as accounting, finance, law, or management) often adopt narrow definitions th ...

decisions to the fund manager. UK

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

s do not traditionally play an important role as institutional investors, as they do for instance in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Institutional Investor Committee represents the interests of the NAPF, ABI, IMA, AITC and the

British Merchant Banking and Securities House Association British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Mutual funds

Representing the mutual fund and fund management industry is primarily the

Investment Management Association The Investment Management Association (IMA), now known as The Investment Association, is a trade association for the UK investment management industry. History In 2015, the trade body was renamed "The Investment Association", following the mer ...

(established in 2002, merging the Institutional Fund Managers Association and the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds). The

Association of Investment Companies The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) is the United Kingdom trade association for the closed-ended investment company industry. Function The association represents a broad range of closed-ended investment companies, incorporating investm ...

is also a representation body, with an overlapping membership, but includes only businesses dealing in closed end investment companies. These are the largest fund managers according to billions of pounds of assets under management.

Pension funds

The

Association of Member Nominated Trustees The Association of Member Nominated Trustees is an organisation established in September 2010 composed of pension trustees selected by employees or members of private and public sector pension funds in the United Kingdom. It is a non-profit group ...

and the

National Association of Pension Funds The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (formerly the National Association of Pension Funds) is a trade association for those involved in designing, operating, advising and investing in all aspects of workplace pensions. The Pensions and ...

are the umbrella bodies representing the interests of pension funds collectively. The number of pension funds largely mirrors the number of companies, as pensions have often not merged on an industry-wide basis.See the 2010 list by the advisory fir
Lucia
. Many pension funds for local councils fall within the umbrella group of the

Local Government Pension Scheme The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is one of the largest public sector pension schemes in the United Kingdom, with 4.6 million members. Administration is carried out through 99 regional pension funds such as Greater Manchester Pension Fund a ...

, but as yet there is no consolidated management.

Insurance companies

The

Association of British Insurers The Association of British Insurers or ABI is a trade association made up of insurance companies in the United Kingdom. History The ABI began in 1985 after several specialised insurance industry trade associations joined to form one trade associa ...

is the umbrella body for UK insurance companies.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Institutional investors Investment in the United Kingdom

Mutual funds

Pension funds

Insurance companies

See also

Notes