Voya Financial

Voya Financial identified and prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment process which included feedback from external stakeholders. In terms of senior leadership accountability, the financial institution assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the board-level nominating and governance committee. Additionally, Voya Financial has a gender-balanced board of directors where four out of nine members are women.

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

Voya Financial has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and race. It also has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. Voya Financial has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses its lobbying expenditures.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, Voya Financial has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive and management teams to sustainability performance criteria. There is no evidence that the financial institution has a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In addition, the asset manager has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Voya Financial has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with investees across its assets under management.

There is no evidence that Voya Financial discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It 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. Furthermore, it could disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. No evidence was found regarding Voya Financial’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. 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 the financial institution 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. It has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its investment activities. Additionally, Voya Financial has an opportunity to disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, it has an opportunity to disclose the amount of investment directed towards low-income developing countries.