Prudential

Prudential identified and prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment process which included feedback from external stakeholders. In terms of senior leadership accountability, it assigns responsibility for sustainability issues to the board of directors and links the remuneration of its executive team to sustainability performance criteria. The financial institution describes its investor engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics and publishes case studies describing where it has engaged successfully and unsuccessfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

As a member of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, Prudential has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses the key companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change and discloses that it requires them to have a strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement. As a member of Climate Action 100+, Prudential’s subsidiary Eastspring discloses that it collectively engages with its investees on the topic of climate change. Prudential provides evidence that it requires palm oil producers to have a strategy addressing their nature- and biodiversity-related impacts. It also provides evidence that it collectively engages with its investees on the topic of their nature- and biodiversity-related impacts.

Prudential has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. In addition, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It also discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. Prudential has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address them.

Prudential has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. In addition, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only four out of 12 board members are women. In terms of gender equality, the financial institution also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. While describing its approach to engagement across its assets under management, Prudential could include clear frameworks with success criteria and escalation points. While the financial institution discloses several companies it engages with, it could provide further detail around these engagements.

There is an opportunity for Prudential to disclose absolute interim financed emissions reduction targets across all of its assets under management, rather than intensity-based targets. It also has an opportunity to disclose its investments devoted to climate solutions. Further, no evidence was found regarding Prudential’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and its assets under management, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects. Prudential could also commit to minimising the negative impacts it has on nature and biodiversity.

There is no evidence that Prudential has 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. The financial institution 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. In addition, 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, Prudential has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.