Question: Does the investor disclose in its modern slavery statement that it has a human rights investment policy covering any portfolios under management?
Answer:
Yes
8990873
Walk Free
2020
Verified by Steward check_circle
updated over 2 years ago by Bernadette Joudo

"6. Our Clientsa. Investment approachWe provide our clients with innovative investment solutions in themes related to human rights, in addition to taking human rights risks into account in solutions that address a broader range of sustainability issues. We offer a range of sustainable and impact investments to meet different client interests, values, risk profiles, return expectations and regional needs.UBS Asset Management (AM) is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI ) and applies a responsible investment approach, which guides processes in integrating environmental, social (including human rights) and governance factors in investment decisions. It also regards stewardship, in the form of proxy voting and engagement, as an integral part of our fiduciary duty. AM has set expectations on management of investee companies regarding human capital management and human rights which guide its stewardship activities. These expectations are included in AM’s annual stewardship report.b. Managing Environmental and Social Risks We have set environmental and social risk (ESR) standards for product development, investments, financing and supply chain management decisions. As part of our due diligence process, we engage with clients and vendors to better understand their processes and policies and to explore how any environmental and social risks may be mitigated. We apply a precautionary approach by avoiding transactions, products, services, activities or vendors if they are associated with material, environmental or social risks that cannot be properly assessed or mitigated.Our ESR standards include the description of controversial activities and other areas of concern we will not engage in, or we will only engage in under stringent criteria.Our standard risk, compliance and operations processes involve procedures and tools for identifying, assessing, reporting and monitoring environmental and social risks. These include client onboarding, transaction due diligence, product development and investment decision processes, regular supply chain management and portfolio reviews. The latter give us an accurate aggregated exposure profile and an enhanced insight into our transaction and client onboarding processes. Based on the outcome of these reviews, we can explore ways to improve the future portfolio profile along a range of risk parameters.Our processes are geared toward identifying clients, transactions or vendors potentially in breach of our standards, or otherwise subject to significant environmental and human rights controversies. We use advanced data analytics to assess companies associated with such risks, integrated into our web-based compliance tool, before we enter into a client or vendor relationship or transaction. This significantly enhances our ability to identify potential risks. In 2020, our ESR unit assessed 2,168 referrals, of which 81 were rejected or not pursued further, while 342 were approved with qualifications and 56 were pending at year-end 2020" pg. 4

Bernadette Joudo.....2021-12-17 05:40:24 UTC