BlackRock is a global asset manager that was founded in 1988 and it’s been operating in Spain since 1994. Our purpose is to handle our customers’ money, and manage investment funds on behalf of institutional investors, chiefly pension funds, insurance companies, fund managers and private banks which, in turn, manage their customers’ money. We always do all of this with a long-term vision, in which risk management and placing sustainability at the epicenter of all of our actions prevails, when it comes to integrating sustainability into the investment processes and offering sustainable investment solutions for our customers. Our purpose is very clear, it’s to help more and more people to achieve financial well-being. When we invest in companies, we take into account environmental, social and corporate governance factors, because they generate a positive impact on companies, society and, therefore, investors. Responsible investment is just a matter of investing in progress, investing in the future, investing in companies that are capable of capitalizing on the opportunities and challenges that we all face. From a sustainability standpoint, we have a clear conviction that sustainable investment, responsible investment, offers a greater risk-adjusted return, always in the long term. Investors play a key role in sustainability issues when it comes to channeling investment into sectors of activity, economic sectors that can really boost an economy. We have a fiduciary responsibility, we represent our customers when it comes to maintaining dialogs with the companies we’ve invested in, and we represent not only their interests, but also the interests of all the stakeholders, both the company’s customers and the suppliers of the company’s talent or team, including the communities in which we operate. At BlackRock we assume this fiduciary responsibility to invest in sustainability on behalf of our customers, but we’re also well aware that this isn’t a task exclusive to the private sector. We must approach it collectively, in partnership with the public sector and hand in hand with the regulators. The asset management industry; at BlackRock we have an important role to play in society. On the one hand, by investing in vital infrastructures, in projects that have a positive impact on people. And, on the other hand, by operating locally in the communities in which we act. I’d like to offer three examples: in Spain, we collaborate with Generation to combat youth unemployment, with Inspiring Girls to increase girls’ self-esteem, and, in our particular case, to promote financial education, and with the food bank to tackle a growing problem, namely malnutrition. The asset management industry has a key role to play in combating the challenges we face from an environmental standpoint. At BlackRock we’ve been at the forefront, not only since 2008, when we signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, but, in recent years, through letters from our CEO, Larry Fink, to the managing directors of the companies we’ve invested in. In these letters, Larry Fink reveals the factors that are relevant to the generation of long-term value. In 2020, his letter addressed climate risk as an investment risk; therefore, what we were saying is that this would entail a significant reallocation of capital. In the 2021 letter we went one step further, not just referring to the historic opportunity that climate change constitutes, but also setting clear objectives in terms of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. At BlackRock our goal is to help our customers to navigate through this energy transition, to identify companies that are winners in their sectors of activity, and, above all, to identify the new technologies that are going to contribute to the decarbonization of the economy. At BlackRock we have a wide range of sustainable products, more than 300 active management funds and indexed management of dedicated sustainable strategies. Last year, in 2021, we launched more than 100 products. I’d like to highlight three. Firstly, a sustainable energy fund that invests in renewable energies, energies of the future that will contribute to decarbonization. Secondly, a multi-asset ESG fund, which helps to combat market volatilities and provides protection against rises in volatility. And the third fund is a circular economy fund that invests in recycling, in a model that provides an alternative to the traditional make, use and throw away concept.
