American Century

American Century has an active ownership policy where it describes its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees. The engagement approach includes a clear framework with success criteria and escalation points if engagement with investees is unsuccessful. It also provides evidence of how the policy is applied in practice in its impact report for its emerging markets fund. Moreover, it discloses a case study where their engagement was successful, and it discloses that it will continue to monitor the case in the future.

The financial institution discloses nature- and biodiversity-related impacts as one of its engagement topics with companies to which it provides financial services.

No leading practices were identified for the financial institution in the adhering to societal conventions measurement area.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, while the Management Committee provides oversight for the firm’s overall ESG strategy, there is no evidence that the financial institution assigns responsibility for sustainability to the group’s highest governing body. There is no evidence that the financial institution links the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. No evidence was found that American Century is committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment. American Century has an opportunity to increase the proportion of women in senior leadership roles as well as disclose how it addresses any gender pay gaps. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only 36% of board members are women.

There is no evidence that American Century discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The financial institution has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Though the FI discloses that it will favour energy players working towards carbon neutrality, there is no evidence that the financial institution discloses its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

There is no evidence that American Century has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UNGPs and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. The financial institution has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. In addition, American Century has an opportunity to disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group, gender or another indicator of diversity. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, the financial institution has an opportunity to disclose the amount of investments directed towards low-income developing countries.