Industry Heavyweights Team Up To Launch MosaicNED

MosaicNED aims to help deliver on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)'s requirement for open-ended funds to appoint a minimum of two or 25% of iNEDs to their boards by the end of September, following concerns raised in 2017 Asset Management Market Study.

The FCA unveiled the new requirement as it said more iNEDS would improve the levels of governance within firms and ensure better scrutiny of their costs and charges.

Research consultancy UK Fund Boards found in its State of the UK Fund Boards 2018 study, carried out in the first half of 2018, that just 11% of board members are independent.

MosaicNED was founded by ex-Mirabaud sales head Paul Boughton, former head of global marketing at Barings Michael Evans, former HSBC GAM manager Jon Rebak and Robert Shearman of Shearman Capital Solutions.

The team developed a training programme, which will ensure asset managers have "fund-board ready" iNEDs from the September deadline.

The first round of training will take place in March, and will cover a variety of topics including regulatory expectations under the Senior Managers Regime, key legislations such as MiFID II, an understanding market, distribution and product governance.

Following the four-day programmes, which are due to take place on a monthly basis, MosaicNED works with participants and fund boards to help find the right match for both parties. iNEDs will also receive ongoing training after they are placed.

Boughton said: "We believe the introduction of iNEDs to UK fund boards will have a positive long-term effect for the asset management industry - creating balance and diversity, fresh insights on governance and making available additional talent on fund boards.

"It is this belief that led us to develop MosaicNED. Asset managers who work with us can be assured they get diverse and fund-board ready iNEDs, while prospective iNEDs will be guided through the process with expert support, which will continue beyond placement with a board, through ongoing training."

Also sitting on MosaicNED's core team is behavioural economics expert Paul Craven and Marianne Montgomery, owner of City headhunting firm The Montgomery Partnership.