Press Releases

BlackRock Earns Straight A’s for Transparency by Principles for Responsible Investment

BlackRock |Sep 09, 2020

New York, September 9, 2020 – For the first time since signing the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2008, BlackRock achieved an A or A+ score across all categories, including an A+ in Strategy & Governance. In 2020, BlackRock met or exceeded the median score for investment managers and earned the most A+ scores in firm history.

BlackRock’s 2020 assessment showed improved PRI scores in every direct investment practice area, including equities, fixed income, alternatives and advisory segments – reflecting how the firm’s investment teams have moved to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) into every investment practice in recent years.

“This year’s results demonstrate our ongoing efforts to drive greater ESG integration across the firm and improve transparency since becoming a PRI signatory. Our increased focus this past year, particularly in investment stewardship, has helped us deliver our best outcomes yet,” said Meaghan Muldoon, Head of ESG Integration at BlackRock.

The PRI Reporting Framework is an effort to build a common language and industry standard for reporting responsible investment (RI) activities. Its primary objective is to enable signatory transparency on RI activities and facilitate dialogue between investors and their clients, beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The PRI Reporting general methodology is available on the PRI website.

In January 2020, BlackRock issued a letter with certain firmwide commitments to help clients achieve their sustainability goals.

Two centerpieces of the letter mirror this year’s PRI results — increasing transparency into BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS) activities and a continued focus on integrating environmental, social and governance data across our active investment processes.

In the past year, BIS has issued 45 bulletins to explain vote decisions and the engagement behind it. And, as of June 30, more than 80% of the approximate 5,600 active portfolios managed by BlackRock have integrated ESG criteria into standard investment practices such as portfolio risk reviews with BlackRock’s Risk and Quantitative Analysis (RQA) group. BlackRock’s ESG Integration Statement can be found here.

Please visit BlackRock’s 2020 PRI Transparency Report for more information.

About BlackRock

BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate