Novia Financial, the Bath-based financial services platform, has become the first firm of its kind in the city to be accredited by the Good Business Charter (GBC) in recognition of it embedding ethical and responsible business practices.
A non-profit initiative of charity the Good Business Foundation, the GBC acts as a benchmark to demonstrate a company’s efforts to ensure responsible behaviour to its consumers, current and potential employees, suppliers and local community.
Accreditation against measured on 10 key components, including diversity and inclusion, employee wellbeing, the real living wage, environmental responsibility and commitment to customers, reflecting a commitment to shifting to more responsible, ethical business practices towards stakeholders.
Novia Financial chief executive officer Patrick Mill said: “Novia is committed to ensuring long-lasting, company-wide improvements to how we operate as a business.
“We are rated annually for our ESG practices and are currently setting our short and medium-term goals for decarbonising.
“We’ve also focused on our internal DE&I strategy, launching a new DE&I network made up of staff from across the business to ensure that Novia is a fair and inclusive place for everyone.
“The principles set by the GBC hold us to account on taking our sustainability responsibilities seriously and allow us to better align our business goals with the values of all our stakeholders.”
Novia was launched in Bath in 2008 by Bill Vasilieff, who built it up to become one of the UK’s leading wealth management platforms capable of competing against the giants of the financial services industry.
It was acquired by private equity firm AnaCap Financial, which operates out of offices in London, Luxembourg, New Delhi, Madrid and Lisbon, just under two years ago.
AnaCap’s platforms, which also includes Wealthtime, Amber Financial Investments and Copia Capital, have more than £11.1bn of pension and investment assets under administration – with Novia accounting for £8.7bn – for 67,000-plus clients.
