Vontobel Holding

Vontobel Holding has an engagement policy where it describes its approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees. The engagement policy includes a clear framework with success criteria and escalation points in the event that engagement with investees is unsuccessful. In addition, the asset manager publishes a stewardship report describing how the engagement policy is applied in practice as well as case studies describing where it has engaged successfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

No leading practices were identified for the financial institution in the respecting planetary boundaries measurement area.

Vontobel Holding has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights as well as a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The asset manager discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, while Vontobel Holding’s sustainability committee overseas the implementation of sustainability, it is unclear that the end responsibility for sustainability issues lies with the board of directors. The asset manager could link the remuneration of its executive and management team to sustainability performance criteria. Additionally, it has an opportunity to disclose its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and has the proportion of women in senior leadership roles as well as how it addresses any gender pay gaps.

There is no evidence that Vontobel Holding discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The asset manager 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. No evidence was found regarding the Vontobel Holding’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.

Vontobel Holding has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, the financial institution 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.