We are delighted to present the 2023 GSR Scoreboard, the most comprehensive analysis on the Governance, Sustainability and Resilience (“GSR”) practices and efforts of the world’s major State-Owned Investors (“SOIs”), including Sovereign Wealth Funds (“SWFs”) and Public Pension Funds (“PPFs).
The assessment tool was first introduced by Global SWF in 2020 to jointly address important aspects such as transparency and accountability, impact and responsible investing, and legitimacy and long-term survival. Four years later, the system is embraced as a key metric among sovereign and pension funds globally.
The scorecard is designed to be fully independent (as we are not commissioned by anyone to do it), quantifiable (assessing progress over time), and objective (based only on publicly available information). The scoring is based on 25 different elements: 10 related to governance, 10 to sustainability, and five to resilience, which are answered binarily (Yes / No) with equal weight and then converted into percentage points.
The 2023 edition seeks relevance and continuity: there have been no changes to the elements, to the methodology, or to the universe of funds (100 SWFs and 100 PPFs), although we have assessed a total of 15 new funds that have been established recently or have gained importance or activity in the past 12 months. For example, we include for the first time three SWFs recently established in Namibia, Israel, and Hong Kong.
Key takeaways of this year’s exercise include:
Significant increase in GSR scores across the board when compared to the past three years;
Largest improvement among SWFs, which are catching up quickly with pension funds; and around sustainability, as funds intensify their impact activities and reporting;
Overall ranking led by Temasek, which continues to be highly regarded, sought after, and used as a model by governments across the world – do not miss the main feature on pages 20-25 of the report;
Three other funds with full marks: CDPQ (Global SWF’s 2022 Fund of the Year), NZ Super (best financial performance in the past decade); and NSIA (remarkable case in the African context);
Regionally, the Middle East has seen the largest improvement, from 32% in 2020 to 52% in 2023. PIF is leading the way with some unprecedented efforts around sustainability in the region;
We expect the scores to keep increasing in the years to come as funds mature and recognize the importance of aligning with best practices around governance, sustainability, and resilience.
The web-based report can now be accessed openly at https://globalswf.com/reports/2023gsr. The arrow on the top right-hand corner allows to download and/or print an old-fashioned pdf, which reads best on a two-pages view.
We will be hosting a Zoom webinar to offer a market update of the first half of 2023, and a summary of this year’s GSR – please register now at https://bit.ly/gsr2023 and tune in next Monday, July 10, at 8am EST / 1pm BST / 4pm GST / 8pm CST.
