The AXA Group has committed its member insurance companies to better integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their investment decisions and has also signed the so-called UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).
The new AXA’s responsible investment policy is a reflection of the group’s belief that ESG factors have the potential to impact investment portfolios across companies, sectors, regions and asset classes over time, thereby affecting risk and returns and as such require active consideration and monitoring.
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Axa said that ESG criteria are being progressively and systematically integrated in AXA’s investment mandates, across asset classes and regions and the ESG performance is tracked accurately by refining specific measurement tools.
This new policy also sets the framework for the structured development of investment guidelines for sectors that can pose environmental, social or ethical challenges.
Axa added that the new policy represented the initiation of its new, so-called Impact Investment project, which aims to allocate capital to organizations that address ESG risks.
The group has initially committed 150 million to this initiative.
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By GlobalDataLaurent Clamagirand CIO Axa group said: "Finalising the company’s responsible investment policy, as has now been done, was both an end and a beginning.
"It is the outcome of a thorough process designed to align interests, and bring all of Axa’s subsidiaries together with regard to responsible investment.
"Our dedicated implementation process and monitoring framework will ensure compliance with, and progress against, the UN PRI, as well as the effective rollout of the RI policy," he added.
Alice Steenland, corporate responsibility director of AXA, said: "By signing the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance in 2012, AXA committed to integrating ESG issues into decision-making processes across the insurance value chain, from the way we do underwriting to the way we market our products."
