M&G

In terms of senior leadership accountability, M&G links the remuneration of its executive team to sustainability performance criteria. The asset manager has a gender-balanced board of directors where 3 out of 6 members are women. It also discloses a target to achieve 40% women representation in leadership roles by 2025. Regarding engagement, M&G has an engagement policy where it describes its approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees, as well as includes a clear framework with success criteria and escalation points. The asset manager publishes a stewardship report describing how the engagement policy is applied in practice and case studies describing where it has engaged successfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

M&G has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses the key sectors it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, and the rationale for choosing these priorities. As a member of Climate Action 100+, M&G discloses that it collectively engages with its investees on the topic of climate change. Furthermore, it discloses that alignment with the Paris Agreement is one of its engagement topics. The asset manager discloses absolute financed emissions as well as the aggregate amount of finance it devotes to climate solutions, for example clean transport and renewable energy. M&G discloses its process for identifying its nature- and biodiversity-related impacts across all its investments.

M&G has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or bribery and corruption concerns. Concerning diversity, M&G discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. The asset manager discloses a global tax strategy for which the board of directors is responsible. M&G also specifies that it does not make political contributions.

M&G could link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of gender equality, the asset manager has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. While M&G discloses the total ratio of basic salary to men and women for its UK operations, it could also provide a breakdown per employee category, as well as disclose the actions taken to address any pay gaps.

M&G discloses an interim emissions reduction target, but only for its public assets managed by M&G Investments. While the asset manager encourages its investees to set a strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement, it has an opportunity to make this a requirement. Regarding its climate solutions, M&G could align with internationally recognised frameworks and disclose time-bound targets. While M&G discloses fossil fuel exposure of its equities and fixed income investments both as an asset owner and asset manager, it has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance it directs towards fossil fuel companies and projects through all its financing activities

M&G has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. It could also disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, M&G has an opportunity to disclose the amount of investments directed towards, for example, low-income developing countries.