In the United Nation's most recent Principles for Responsible Investment survey, Aegon Asset Management in the UK, Kames Capital, received the maximum possible rating, which was awarded to just 15% of signatories.
Kames Capital has been a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment since 2008. This is the second consecutive year in which it has received the A+ rating - compared to the median rating of B.
Kames Capital also received the maximum score for each of the 10 assessment categories covering its overarching approach to responsible investment, including the quality and disclosure of our policies; setting objectives and strategies; governance and resources; collaborative activities and our commitment to promoting responsible investment among its clients and peers.
Commenting on the report, Ryan Smith, Kames Capital's Head of Ethical Research and Corporate Governance, said:
"We are delighted to have received such a positive feedback report for the second consecutive year. This underlines our longstanding commitment to being a global leader in sustainable and responsible investment.
"We were particularly encouraged by the detail of the report, which saw us continue to score highly in listed equities and corporate bonds. We have also made significant progress in our feedback scores for property, an area where we are making a major investment to achieve best-practice in ESG integration".
About the UNPRI assessment methodology
The UNPRI Initiative supports signatories' efforts in their implementation of the Principles for Responsible Investment through the annual reporting and assessment process. Reporting is one of the mandatory requirements for all asset owner and investment manager signatories.
The framework has been designed to achieve three main sets of objectives:
- Ensure accountability of the PRI initiative and its signatories.
- Encourage signatory transparency on responsible investment activities.
- Provide tools to allow signatories to measure their own performance with objective indicators.
The framework meets these goals by providing a set of standardized indicators relevant and to the point for all investors, with separate pathways for direct and indirect investors and specific asset class modules.
