Corporate and social responsibility

In a competitive environment, an interdealer broker’s key asset is its people – both the brokers and the staff that support them. Our brokers and their managers comprise the largest group of our overall staff and they are required to have very specific skills. They are highly entrepreneurial, dynamic, team-spirited individuals with extremely strong networking and interpersonal skills and the ability to excel in a pressurised environment. ICAP’s ability to attract and retain the highest quality staff and leverage their intellectual capital is one of the key factors driving the success of its business. Management is committed to the advancement and training of talented individuals and to providing an environment that is intellectually challenging, motivating and supportive.

ICAP has more than 4,300 staff worldwide, with over 1,800 employees based in EMEA, over 1,700 in the Americas and more than 750 staff in Asia Pacific. Of these employees, 2,300 are broking staff, 630 are involved with the development and maintenance of our technology and 260 are involved in the sales, marketing and support of our electronic broking platforms.

In order to ensure a continuing flow of intellectual capital into our business, ICAP is committed to maintaining an active graduate recruitment programme, even in these more difficult market conditions. First launched in 2006, ICAP’s global graduate recruitment programme aims to provide a steady flow of young, developing talent into the business. Since its launch, a total of 81 graduates have joined ICAP, with 36 graduates joining in the past year.

The number of staff grew rapidly in the past year due to the acquisition of Link and the expansion of selected focus areas of our business, such as cash equities. Recent financial market dislocations have provided the opportunity to hire highly skilled individuals. However, ICAP continues to monitor staff efficiency and productivity closely. We consider revenue per voice broker to be a key measure of this performance and this figure increased to £560,000 in 2008/09 from £499,000 in the prior year. These brokers work on a commission basis, with an extremely high percentage of their remuneration variable with performance. This variable commission as a percentage of overall remuneration decreased slightly from 63% to 62% compared to the previous year. Overall staff compensation increased to 59% of revenue, from 56% in the prior year, largely due to our investment in new business areas.

ICAP is committed to achieving and maintaining the highest standards in the workplace. This commitment is underpinned by policies on equal opportunities, harassment and discrimination, to which all employees are required to adhere and which are regularly monitored and enforced. The Group undertakes diversity training designed to prevent harassment and discrimination and retaliation against individuals who report problems in the Group’s workplace.

The Group recognises the importance of effective internal communication in promoting employee engagement and uses a variety of methods, including ICAP’s new global intranet, to keep staff informed about developments in the business, policies and procedures and training and advancement opportunities in a timely manner.

Incentive and share ownership schemes are also run for the benefit of employees. Further information on these schemes can be found in note 26 to the financial statements.

ICAP is committed to employment policies that provide and promote equal employment and advancement opportunities and to providing an environment that ensures tolerance and respect for all employees. ICAP’s policy is that no employee, contract or temporary worker will be treated less favourably, victimised or harassed on the grounds of their disability, gender, marital or civil partnership status, race, nationality, colour, ethnicity, religion or similar philosophical belief, sexual orientation, age, or any other class protected by applicable law.

ICAP has a health and safety policy which is approved by the board and owned by the Group Chief Operating Officer. Regional health and safety committees oversee structures for policy compliance. All managers have a responsibility for ensuring a healthy and safe working environment. The greater majority of ICAP employees work in an office environment and, as such, there are no significant areas of risk to report.

Corporate philanthropy and charitable giving have always been an important part of ICAP’s corporate culture and ICAP’s annual Charity Day has played a special role in employee motivation since its inception in 1993. Charity Day is an annual event each December when the Group donates a whole day’s revenue to a selection of charities worldwide. This revenue would otherwise contribute directly to the broker commission pool and, as such, our staff are contributing directly to these worthy causes. In 2008 ICAP’s Charity Day raised £11 million for more than 100 charitable organisations, bringing the total sum raised since the creation of Charity Day to £53 million. This very significant sum has contributed greatly to alleviating suffering and improving the lives of thousands of people. There is significant employee and customer involvement in Charity Day and the charities are selected by ICAP’s staff in each region in which it operates.

ICAP’s environment policy is approved by the board and owned by the Group Finance Director.

As a financial institution, the nature of ICAP’s operations means that its environmental impact is relatively low and is limited to the emission of greenhouse gases through running offices and corporate travel. ICAP seeks to reduce emissions by purchasing electricity from renewable sources where possible, minimising air travel and recycling waste. ICAP has worked with Carbon Neutral Limited, an environmental consultancy, to estimate the residual emissions of the Group in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents. Worldwide, the Group is estimated to emit the equivalent of 15.9 thousand tonnes* of carbon dioxide or 3.8 tonnes (2008 – 4.1 tonnes) per employee per annum. ICAP continues to monitor electricity output and overall emissions output. ICAP will endeavour to further reduce this footprint, however the expansion of our global office network is likely to impact our footprint in the medium term. Where it is not possible to reduce this footprint, ICAP purchases Certificates of Emission Reduction (CER) under the United Nations’ sponsored Clean Development Mechanism.

Furthermore, one of ICAP’s principal business divisions is actively involved in reducing emissions output by offering broking services in emissions credits as part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and CER. ICAP is the largest OTC broker in this market and an estimated 60%-70% of all volume in these products is traded in the OTC markets. ICAP is also active in the nascent emissions trading markets in the US.