John has continued to take a leading role in industry initiatives, particulalry with the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF), the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Major points included:

 

Solvency II

 

John has been covering the impact for real estate of the EU Solvency II Directive since before he left PwC. The Directive was a fundamental reform of the capital adequacy regime for the European insurance industry. On 15th October 2019, The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), which is the relevant EU regulatory body, published a detailed and comprehensive (878 page) consultation paper as part of the 2020 review of Solvency II. John drafted the real estate industry responses for AREF and the IPF and contributed to the INREV response.

 

Cost Transparency Initiative

 

The Cost Transparency Initiative (CTI) was launched in November 2018 - it is an independent group supported by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board and the Investment Association (IA). It is a new industry standard for institutional investment cost data. John chairs the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) CTI & Expense Ratio Working Group and represents the real estate industry on the CTI Technical Expert Panel. We have more information about it here.

 

AREF/INREV Open End Fund Pricing Project

 

This project has been ongoing since 2017. John was part of the group that drafted the phase 2 report and consultation, which is currently ongoing. You can find more details here.

 

AREF Covid 19 webinars

 

John chaired the regular AREF Covid crisis update webinars. You can find more the recordings here. You also get to see the interesting array of bow ties that John chose to wear.