Thailand’s Government Pension Fund (GPF) has joined 32 securities companies in declaring an ESG (environmental, social, governance) Collaborative Engagement and Negative List Guidelines, under which institutional investors will be held more responsible for managing the investments of their clients.

The event on Wednesday was chaired by Finance Permanent Secretary Prasong Poonthanet.

GPF Secretary-General Vithai Rattanakorn said that responsible investment, with consideration for environmental, social and good governance issues, will yield steady returns, while reducing risks in the long term for fund members, and contribute to sustainable development of the capital markets.

He hailed the collaboration announced today, the first of its kind, as a first major step toward ESG collaborative engagement.

The institutional investors have combined assets worth 10.8 trillion baht under their management.  These include investments from the GPF, the Social Security Office, insurance companies and the securities companies themselves.

Under the signed Negative List Guideline, if a listed company commits a serious breach of the Securities Act, the 32 institutional investors will step in to coordinate with the company in question to resolve the problem. If the listed company concerned still fails to address the problem, all 32 signatory institutional investors will boycott the errant company by suspending any further investment in it until the problem is fixed.

The 32 institutional investors include:  GPF, Social Security Office, Kasikorn Thai Securities, SCB Securities, Krung Thai Securities, MFC Securities, Krungsri Securities, One Securities, Thanachat Securities, Bua Luang Securities, UBO Securities, Principle Securities, TMB Securities, Talis Securities, Land & House Securities, Pathara Securities, Innotech Securities, Bangkok Capital Securities, Philip Securities, Philip Securities, Manulife Securities, Aberdeen Standard Securities, Siam Night Fund Management Securities, V Securities, Assets Plus Securities, Muang Thai Insurance Securities, AIA Securities, Thai Ocean  Insurance Securities, Bangkok Insurance Securities, Prudential Life Assurance Securities and FWD Securities.