Publications & Guidelines

Erste AM guidelines

The Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI) as laid down by the United Nations are the basis of our sustainable investment approach. As signatory of the PRI, Erste Asset Management is committed to the following principles in its investment policy:

We will take into account environmental, social, and governance topics (ESG) in our investment analysis and decision-making processes.
We will be an active owner and integrate ESG topics into our ownership policy and practice.
We will require appropriate reporting of ESG topics from the companies we invest in.
We will promote the acceptance and implementation of the PRI in the investment industry.
We will co-operate with partners so as to increase the effectiveness of the implementation of the PRI.
We will report on our activities and progress in the implementation of the PRI.

We also require our external partners to have either signed the PRI or to follow them
to the greatest extent possible.

Guidelines on minimum ethical standards

These are minimum ethical standards for all mutual funds (bonds, equities) of Erste Asset Management:

Exclusion of controversial weapons

Since 2012 Erste Asset Management has committed to refraining from investments in companies that are involved in controversial weapons. Among them are:

Biological and chemical weapons
Submunition, including possible launch and ejection systems
Anti-personnel mines, mine-planting systems, and other mine systems
Nuclear weapons
Depleted uranium weapons

All retail funds and portfolios actively managed by Erste Asset Management on a discretionary basis are subject to this obligation.

No speculation on food

In line with the social responsibility of the entire Erste Group, Erste Asset Management committed in 2013 to refraining across all the investment funds and client portfolios it manages from investments that bet on an increase in food prices. In particular, for our multi-asset mandates – both umbrella funds and asset management solutions - we will not invest in third-party funds or derivatives that speculate on food prices.

No investment in coal

In 2016, Erste Asset Management was one of the first investment fund companies in Austria and Europe to commit to the exclusion of investments in coal across all mutual funds on the basis of individual securities (equities and bonds). On 1 July 2021, this policy was tightened by an exclusion of coal-fired power generation and a reduction of the revenue threshold to 5% and supplemented with findings from the Paris Climate Agreement. Therefore, companies that have communicated and committed to exit coal are exempt from the revenue threshold.

Our Exclusion Criteria for the Responsible Funds

Since 2013, Erste Asset Management has committed itself to refrain from investing in food in all the investment funds it manages and from investing in derivatives.

_{¹ International Labour Organization (ILO)

² According to Erste AM Coal Divestment Policy

³ Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/1818 of July 2020.

⁴ Only those companies whose human embryonic stem cell research is associated with the destruction of embryos are excluded.

⁵ According to Erste AM Soft-Commodity Speculation Policy

⁶ According to Erste AM Controversial Weapons Policy

⁷ See common military list of the European Union – dual-use products need not to be excluded.}

_{¹ Based on data from Climate Watch, averaged over the maximum of the last three available years.}

Publications

Sustainability handbook

Sustainability means being aware of one's actions and their consequences and designing them in such a way that they do not harm anyone if possible. In other words, actions and deeds of the present generation should not restrict the ability of future generations to act. Sustainable action means behaving like a farmer who cares for a tree in the best possible way and harvests its fruit without cutting it down. In this way, one can expect a sustainable high harvest without endangering the livelihood of tomorrow.

Stewardship policy

We are committed to act as responsible stewards of the assets we manage and take accountability for our actions. By integrating sustainability into our investment strategies, we want to promote corporate responsible behavior to contribute to a positive social and environmental impact. Our stewardship policy describes the scope of our responsible investment practices and the processes in place to foster sustainable performance, with active ownership at the heart of our strategy.

Biodiversity

The global crisis biodiversity is facing, is a threat to our planet. Our financial and economic systems are not exempt from this. However, investments in nature also offer opportunities. Erste Asset Management's Biodiversity Policy defines concrete measures and goals that are integrated through our engagements and votes, as an active investor.

Active Ownership

By active ownership we mean our responsibility to not only take into account sustainability issues when selecting the securities for our portfolios as investors, but also to actively push for measures towards social responsibility, environmental protection, or stronger transparency from companies that we invest in.

In doing so, we distinguish between engagement, i.e. the formal or informal dialogue with the company, and voting, i.e. the exercise of voting rights at Annual General Meetings (AGMs). Both activities pursue the goal of strengthening the voice that our clients have given us by investing in our sustainable funds and submitting it to the companies.

Once a year we report in depth on our voting and engagement activities:

Voting

Voting is the second central pillar of the active ownership approach of Erste AM. We have exercised the voting rights associated with the shares in our ERSTE RESPONSIBLE funds at Annual General Meetings since 2012. Since 2016, we have also extended the exercise the voting rights to our traditionally managed equity funds. This way, we actively project the voice of our clients as indirect owners of the invested companies.

In order to ensure the transparency and consistency of our voting, we have compiled a detailed guideline and regularly and publicly report on our voting behaviour on our voting portal. This guideline does not only apply to our sustainable equity funds, but also to our traditionally managed equity funds.

„Due to the present Covid-19-crisis it might happen in exceptional cases, that voting rights are not executed”

Engagement

As engaged investor, we want to achieve an active dialogue with the invested companies within the framework of our sustainability process. This way, we can point out weaknesses in environmental, social, or governance areas and subsequently try to jointly find a solution for improvement. Our engagement is not only a question of responsibility but also contributes to the minimization of risk to enhance the long-term investment success of our clients. As we want to drive change in as many companies as possible, we also engage with those in which we are not invested. We carry out engagement through 3 channels:

Closed collaborative engagements

Further Publications of Erste AM

ESG Publications Overview: EU Green Consumption Pledge

Here you can find all blog posts on the Erste AM Investment Blog on the topic of sustainability as well as the reportings on the SDGs.

Impact folder

ESG Plus: Impact measurement of investment products

Here you will find a description of the methodology used to calculate the impact metrics of our partner ESG Plus GmbH.

ESG Reports

ERSTE ETHIK AKTIEN GLOBAL	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE ETHIK ANLEIHEN	PDF (633 KB)
ERSTE FAIR INVEST	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE GREEN INVEST	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE GREEN INVEST MIX	PDF (632 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EM CORPORATE	PDF (624 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EURO CORPORATE	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL HIGH YIELD	PDF (624 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL IMPACT	PDF (624 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE RESERVE	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK AMERICA	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK DIVIDEND	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK EUROPE	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK GLOBAL	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK JAPAN	PDF (622 KB)
ERSTE STOCK ENVIRONMENT	PDF (633 KB)
ERSTE WWF STOCK ENVIRONMENT	PDF (623 KB)

Sustainability profiles

Here you will find selected sustainability profiles of our equity and bond funds that apply the Erste AM sustainability strategies Impact and Responsible.

ERSTE ETHIK AKTIEN GLOBAL	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE ETHIK ANLEIHEN	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE FAIR INVEST	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE GREEN INVEST	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE GREEN INVEST MIX	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EM CORPORATE	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EURO CORPORATE	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL HIGH YIELD	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL IMPACT	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND MÜNDEL	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE RESERVE	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK AMERICA	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK DIVIDEND	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK EUROPE	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK GLOBAL	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK JAPAN	PDF (1 MB)
ERSTE WWF STOCK ENVIRONMENT	PDF (1 MB)

*master fund, for active distribution in Germany the feeder fund ERSTE STOCK ENVIRONMENT has been approved, for further details on the master fund ERSTE WWF STOCK ENVIRONMENT see erste-am.at

List of funds with responsible investment labels

Disclaimer and legal notes

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK AMERICA

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK EUROPE

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK GLOBAL

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK DIVIDEND

ERSTE FAIR INVEST

ERSTE GREEN INVEST

ERSTE GREEN INVEST MIX

ERSTE WWF STOCK ENVIRONMENT

ERSTE ETHIK ANLEIHEN

ERSTE ETHIK AKTIEN GLOBAL

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EURO CORPORATE

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND EM CORPORATE

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL IMPACT

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE BOND GLOBAL HIGH YIELD

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE RESERVE

ERSTE RESPONSIBLE STOCK JAPAN

Disclaimer

This document is an advertisement. Please refer to the prospectus of the UCITS or to the Information for Investors pursuant to Art 21 AIFMG of the alternative investment fund and the Key Information Document before making any final investment decisions. All data is sourced from Erste Asset Management GmbH, unless indicated otherwise. Our languages of communication are German and English.

The prospectus for UCITS (including any amendments) is published in accordance with the provisions of the InvFG 2011 in the currently amended version. Information for Investors pursuant to Art 21 AIFMG is prepared for the alternative investment funds (AIF) administered by Erste Asset Management GmbH pursuant to the provisions of the AIFMG in connection with the InvFG 2011.

The fund prospectus, Information for Investors pursuant to Art 21 AIFMG, and the Key Information Document can be viewed in their latest versions at the web site www.erste-am.com within the section mandatory publications or obtained in their latest versions free of charge from the domicile of the management company and the domicile of the custodian bank. The exact date of the most recent publication of the fund prospectus, the languages in which the Key Information Document is available, and any additional locations where the documents can be obtained can be viewed on the web site www.erste-am.com. A summary of investor rights is available in German and English on the website www.erste-am.com/investor-rights as well as at the domicile of the management company.

The management company can decide to revoke the arrangements it has made for the distribution of unit certificates abroad, taking into account the regulatory requirements.

Detailed information on the risks potentially associated with the investment can be found in the fund prospectus or Information for investors pursuant to Art 21 AIFMG of the respective fund. If the fund currency is a currency other than the investor's home currency, changes in the corresponding exchange rate may have a positive or negative impact on the value of his investment and the amount of the costs incurred in the fund - converted into his home currency.

Our analyses and conclusions are general in nature and do not take into account the individual needs of our investors in terms of earnings, taxation, and risk appetite. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of the future performance of a fund.

The issue and redemption of unit certificates and the execution of payments to unit holders has been transferred to the Fund's custodian bank/depositary, Erste Group Bank AG, Am Belvedere 1, 1100 Vienna, Austria. Redemption requests can be submitted by investors to their custodian bank, which will forward them to the Custodian Bank/Depositary of the Fund for execution via the usual banking channels. All payments to investors are also processed via the usual banking clearing channel with the investor's custodian bank. In Germany, the issue and return prices of shares are published in electronic form on the web site www.erste-am.com (and also at www.fundinfo.com). Any other information for Shareholders is published in the Bundesanzeiger, Cologne.

Publications & guidelines