Fannie Mae

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the responsibility for sustainability issues within Fannie Mae lies with the Community, Responsibility and Sustainability Committee. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, the financial institution has a gender-balanced board of directors where five out of 12 members are women.

The financial institution discloses that it has issued USD 101.6 billion in green bonds since 2012 and that its climate solutions (green bonds) are aligned with the ICMA Green Bond Principles.

Fannie Mae discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and race or ethnicity. The bank also has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns as well as complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Furthermore, it has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. Finally, Fannie Mae discloses the amount of finance it directs towards low-income and very low-income people and provides a breakdown of its purchased single-family mortgages by income class.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, the financial institution has an opportunity to link the remuneration of both its executive team and management team to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, Fannie Mae has an opportunity to provide a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. It also has an opportunity to disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and the actions taken to address any pay gaps. Finally, Fannie Mae has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees.

Fannie Mae has an opportunity to disclose a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050 and the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. It could also disclose time-bound targets explicitly for its climate solutions and progress against those targets. Regarding nature and biodiversity, Fannie Mae has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions. No evidence was found regarding the financial institution’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects.

Fannie Mae has an opportunity to provide a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UN Guiding Principles and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. It also has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. While it discloses the ages of its board members and executive directors, it has an opportunity to disclose this information for each employee category. Furthermore, the financial institution could disclose the amount of finance directed towards SMEs and low-income developing countries.