While bankers and brokers remain everyone’s favorite culprits for causing the great financial crisis two years ago, a less likely suspect—the institutional-investor community—is increasingly coming under scrutiny. These investors, in particular pension funds, insurance companies, and investment-management firms, are major market players around the world. In the United Kingdom, for example, they own and manage more than 70 percent of the stock market. Now, politicians and regulators say that such institutions must share the blame for enabling the crisis through passive corporate governance and a focus on short-term returns.

The European Union recently charged that the financial crisis has shaken the assumption that shareholders can be relied on to act as responsible owners. Former US vice president Al Gore and David Blood, cofounders of an investment fund dedicated to long-term investing, have criticized the common practice, among asset owners, of reviewing and rewarding their asset managers based on short-term performance. Indeed, a movement is afoot in Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other markets to encourage institutional investors to become better “stewards” of the companies they invest in, by adopting a more active and long-term stance.