Responsible Investments
Our Approach to Responsible Investments
At Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), we strive to exceed our clients’ expectations for service and investment results. To meet our clients’ objectives, we undertake rigorous and holistic investment analysis across a range of asset classes and offer a breadth of solutions and capabilities that allow clients to customize their investments according to their preferences.
By the Numbers
ESG Integration and Sustainability Solutions
Our approach to responsible investing is grounded in financial materiality and is centered on our clients’ preferences. We work closely with clients and partners to customize our products to meet their requirements. Importantly, Voya IM does not apply firm-wide exclusions. However, when a client elects to exclude certain issuers or sectors from their portfolios or when a fund is designed to meet certain regulatory requirements in specific markets, we have the capabilities to implement such client or fund-directed exclusion lists to ensure portfolios align with their objectives.
Below is a description of our main investment solutions:
Tools and Capabilities
*Note that relevance and availability vary by asset class and strategy.
Active Ownership
Driving Long-Term Value Through Voting and Issuer Engagement
Voya IM’s long-term perspective favors sound investment principles aligned with the priorities of our clients. Accordingly, our active ownership activities are designed to protect and enhance the economic value of the companies in which we invest on behalf of our clients. We do this through exercising our voting rights at shareholder meetings and engaging with issuers of securities in which we have invested.
Engaging Issuers to Strengthen Investment Insight
Our investment teams, including portfolio managers and analysts, engage with issuer management teams to address a range of fundamental questions and concerns, which may include issues that can be classified as environmental, social and governance (ESG). Engagements focused on ESG are led by the Active Ownership team and may also include members of our investment teams. Such dialogues are likely to enrich our investment analysis while at the same time providing useful insights to issuers into how they compare generally to industry peers and how markets perceive their initiatives.
FAQs
What is ESG?
ESG is an abbreviation for Environmental, Social and Governance. At Voya we use the term as an umbrella for data points categorized under each respective letter and theme including Governance, Environmental Resilience, Human Rights and Labor.
What is ESG Integration?
At Voya IM, ESG integration is the consideration of material Environmental, Social or Governance information, such as the risk of litigation, for a specific issuer, in the investment process.
Do you have firm wide exclusions?
No, Voya IM does not exclude companies from portfolios on a firm-wide basis. However, based on client’s requests, we have the capabilities to implement such client/fund-directed exclusion lists to ensure portfolios reflect the client’s investment objectives.
Which organizations are you affiliated with?
Voya IM is affiliated with the following organizations:
- Council of Institutional Investors: Provides a voice for effective corporate governance, strong shareowner rights and sensible financial regulations that foster fair, vibrant capital markets. Voya IM became a signatory in 2019.
- Investment Company Institute (ICI) ESG Advisory Group: Seeks to encourage adherence to high ethical standards, promote public understanding, and otherwise advance the interests of funds, their shareholders, directors and advisers. Voya IM joined the ESG Advisory Group in 2020.
- Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) ESG working group: Focuses on ESG developments in the loan market, which includes ESG integration as well as the development and evolution of ESG loan products. Voya IM joined the working group in 2019.
- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA): Asset Management Group (AMG) ESG Taskforce: Provides views on U.S., and global policy and to create industry best practices. Voya IM became a member of the ESG taskforce in 2018.
- UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI): Aims to help investors integrate ESG considerations into investment decision making and supports sharing best practice in active ownership. Voya IM has been a signatory since 2017.
Who oversees Voya IM’s Responsible Investment Strategy and Policy?
Voya IM’s Responsible Investment Committee acts as a governing body, providing oversight of our responsible investment strategy, and fostering continuous improvement of our research, solutions, and capabilities. The committee is chaired by our Head of Responsible Investment and Thematic Research, who reports to our Chief Investment Officer, and its membership spans our active ownership, legal, compliance, and risk teams, among others. The Voya IM Responsible Investment Committee is tasked with managing our Voya IM Responsible Investment Policy, including our related memberships and affiliations, overseeing certain disclosures about our responsible investment program, raising awareness of evolving risks and changing regulations, and fostering a unified response to such developments across our platform. Our proxy voting activities are overseen by our Voya IM Proxy Committee that meets quarterly and is chaired by our Head of Active Ownership.
What are the focus areas of the Responsible Investment and Thematic Research team?
The Responsible Investment and Thematic Research team acts as a center of expertise to help guide investment teams in their incorporation of responsible investment principles. The team’s scope of responsibility spans three major areas: ESG Research, Active Ownership, and Thematic Research. ESG Research is focused on curating data and developing insights, both from a top-down and bottom-up perspective, to support the investment teams’ ESG integration and responsible investment approaches. Our ESG Research capabilities include ESG scoring techniques, as well as both quantitative and qualitative assessments of material ESG topics. Meanwhile, the Active Ownership (“AO”) team leads Voya IM’s proxy voting and corporate engagement processes. Finally, our Thematic Research capabilities are focused on providing insights about long-term trends and themes impacting our investments across asset classes. Thematic Research encompasses a broad range of themes including sustainability, emerging technologies, demographic shifts, and macro and geopolitical developments.
Is Voya IM a member of the UN PRI?
Yes, Voya became a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) in 2017.
To meet our clients’ objectives, we undertake rigorous and holistic investment analysis across a range of asset classes and offer a breadth of solutions and capabilities that allow clients to customize their investments according to their preferences.
This policy sets forth the proxy voting procedures (“Procedures”) and guidelines (“Guidelines”), collectively the “Proxy Voting Policy”, that Voya IM shall follow when voting proxies on behalf of our clients.
Our Team
The Responsible Investment and Thematic Research team acts as a center of expertise to help guide investment teams in their incorporation of responsible investment principles. The team’s scope of responsibility spans three major areas: ESG Research, Active Ownership, and Thematic Research.
