Barclays' winning scheme

Pension funds need to stop behaving like the man from Del Monte, says the winner of the investment competition run by the National Association of Pension Funds. In a reference to a well-known 1980s advertising campaign, Mark Hyde Harrison, chief executive of the £17bn Barclays UK Retirement Fund, who picked up his award at the NAPF conference last week, says that, instead of expecting to be feted by fund managers keen to win mandates, funds should set out to find the best managers. That is how the Barclays fund works. “We undertake a number of trips each year around the world to romance managers with whom we want to do business,” its competition entry proclaims. Mr Hyde Harrison adds: “We invest in over 100 funds and none [of them] have ever rung us.” Talk of romancing managers was only one point among many in the Barclays... [read full story]