What we do
To meet our objectives, the Forum focuses on three connected activities — each underpinned by our independence, our practitioner-led approach and the depth of our member community.
Engagements between institutional investors and individual companies, focusing on all material issues — strategic, financial, governance and sustainability. Our framework provides a safe and structured environment for collective dialogue.
Company events with key investors, group meetings to discuss market issues, and the Four O’Clock Forum series — strengthening the relationship between issuers and the investor community.
Selective Working Group projects that bring investors together to collaborate on wider material issues — promoting well-functioning markets and addressing wider stakeholder concerns.
The framework
The Collective Engagement Framework is designed to create a safe and secure environment in which to facilitate collective engagement. For collective engagement to work effectively, participants need to be clear about objectives, the boundaries of engagement, and to feel comfortable that they are operating in a safe and secure environment.
Members cite "a safe environment (legal framework)" as important or very important when considering participation in a collective engagement.
A Member actively chooses to participate in any Engagement and can choose to opt out at any time. Members retain full control over what information they receive.
Members must agree to comply with confidentiality obligations during an Engagement. Disclosure of identities and public statements must be agreed by participants.
The Forum is not intended as a means of facilitating the exchange of inside information, and actively seeks to avoid obtaining inside information from companies without prior consent.
Heightened procedures may apply for engagements involving companies with dual U.S. or other foreign listings. The Forum maintains control procedures to avoid conflicts of interest.
Members are actively encouraged to continue their direct interaction with companies outside the Forum's auspices alongside any collective engagement.
Regulator perspectives
The 2025 update of the Collective Engagement Framework was welcomed publicly by senior figures at both the FCA and the Financial Reporting Council.
Effective stewardship plays a vital role in supporting well-functioning markets. The Investor Forum's updated Collective Engagement Framework sets out an approach to collaborative engagement which should benefit both investors and companies. Practical initiatives like this not only reinforce market integrity but also help protect the interests of beneficial owners.
The new Stewardship Code reinforces the need for investors to engage constructively with investee companies, and one method for achieving this is through collaboration with others. Frameworks such as the one developed by the Investor Forum can help investors collaborate constructively, either for insight or as a means of escalation.
When the Forum engages
Before initiating a collective engagement, the Forum tests each potential engagement against three criteria.
UK Stewardship Code 2026
Collective engagement is explicitly recognised as a method of engagement under Principle 3. The Forum supports Members in navigating the new Code through collective engagements (Principles 3 & 4) and promoting well-functioning markets (Principle 2), providing a safe, compliant framework for collaboration.
P2
Four O’Clock Forums, S-360 projects, I&IF initiatives.
P3
Collective engagements, Board Dialogue Service, company meetings.
P4
AGM tracking, proxy adviser research, voting analysis.