Investors International Forum


Peter Schirmer Editor B2B Gibraltar \| 05/03/04 Peter Schirmer Editor - B2B Magazine Jeremy BlatchÖmaking positive changes Since last year"s US accounting scandals which damaged global investor confidence - and led to tough new American legislation placing accountability for accurate books and statements directly on the shoulders of corporate boardrooms - auditors, trust managers and other financial players have taken stock of their professional standards. The ripples of this drive for greater professional integrity have spread to Spain and Gibraltar where, in September, the Investors International Forum was launched. The forum - described by one of it founding members Jeremy Blatch, as an ìalternative investment strategyî ñ promotes ethical integrity and transparency among financial professionals and, at the same time, promises to ìhelp make a positive changes to the weakest in our society.î ìMaking money consistently has never been easy, but the past three years have dented the performance of even the most talented money managers,î Blatch says. ìMoney in the industrialised economies has never been cheaper, and with a culture of sign and spend rather than save and spend, we have amassed now critical levels of personal debt. ìDuring these last years the catalogue of greed, fraud and regulatory malaise has left most investors shell-shocked and with a lack of trust in advisors and corporate governance.î Integrity a key-note To combat this and taking ìadvice and corporate dealings with integrityî as a starting point, a group of independent professional firms and banks with a proven track record of business integrity got together to start the Forum. It is a platform which will give investors access to quality advice covering all aspects of the wider investment process, Blatch explains. ìGone are the days, for the circumspect, when one institution or individual is able to deal with all aspects of investment although most would advertise that they can and would want the investor"s mandate,î he adds. ìThe reality is that only truly independent advice from a range of firms will give investors the safety and security they need, particularly in the current climate of mistrust and suspicion.î While the Forum"s main thrust is to provide investors with access to independent specialist knowledge a transparency in dealings, it is also concerned with what its sees as the financial sector"s wider social responsibility to populations in the world"s poorer counties. The poor get poorer... ìAs the developed world gets richer, so the underdeveloped world gets poorer,î the Forum"s promotional brochure points out, adding that a proportion of all its annual fees is earmarked for the charity Remar which works with the underpriviledged ñ particularly young drug addicts ñ on a world-wide basis. ìRemar was set up in Spain in 1982 when Juan Miguel Diez and his wife Mari decided to leave their personal occupations to answer a call of compassion for the underprivileged in society,î Blatch says. ìGoing out into the streets to search for young drug addicts and alcoholics they took them into their own home.î Since then Remar"s growth has been spectacular, with many of the young people who have passed through the rehabilitation process actively setting out to help others with social problems. ìIt currently operates in 56 countries, giving help to those most in need, creating social canteens where people are fed, setting up safe houses of love and warmth for the homeless and orphans, building hospitals and schools and distributing material aid to the most needy areas of the world,î Blatch says. Each day the charity provides meals for some 16,000 people while more than 9,000 are house by Remar ñ young and old, women with children. Street people and those suffering with aids in fact, those living on the margins of society, he adds.