Responsible investmentSustainability

• As a long-term investor in a wide range of companies, sectors and countries, we take our responsibilities as both an asset owner and steward of our client assets seriously.
• Being a responsible company means that we integrate sustainability and responsible business principles into our core business and engage with our employees to make this an integrated effort.
• Aegon’s Responsible Investment Policy recognizes a broad range of recurring sustainability and ESG topics, from climate change to corporate governance.
• We are an asset owner signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI).

Responsible Investment Framework

Aegon Asset Management (AAM) has a  Responsible Investment Framework is structured as follows:

• ESG integration – Material ESG factors are fundamental to our investment decision-making across all AAM portfolios. By integrating ESG considerations into traditional financial analysis, the AAM research team arrives at an independent view of an issuer’s fundamentals.
• Active ownership – Aegon actively engages with investee companies to help improve their ESG profile and address sustainability issues. We also exercise our shareholder voting rights to support our engagement efforts and enhance long-term value creation for all stakeholders.
• Solutions – AAM provides a range of responsible investment solutions to pursue ESG objectives alongside financial returns, based on four categories:
  
  Exclusion-based strategies (Utilize negative screening to avoid certain sectors, companies or practices based on specific criteria);
  
  Best-in-class strategies (Seek to outperform by emphasizing positive screening of issuers with better or improving ESG practices);
  
  Sustainability-themed strategies (Focus on issuers aligned with sustainability themes in an effort to generate competitive returns over the long term)
  
  Impact investments (Pursue financial returns alongside measurable positive social and/or environmental impact).

Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)

In November 2022, Aegon became an asset owner signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), following Aegon Asset Management's longstanding asset manager signatory status. The PRI sets out guidelines for how investors should take into account environmental, social and governance factors when making their investment decisions. Going forward, we will take these practices onboard when reviewing our Aegon NV Responsible Investment Policy and maturing our overall Group-wide approach to responsible investment.

As of 2024, you will be able to read about our progress in our transparency report, which we will publish on our website.

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