Corporate Responsibility

The Board of Directors and management of Venture Bell have long recognized the importance of corporate governance practices that help ensure an environment of effective oversight and strong accountability.

As one of our key Business Principles states: “Our assets are our people, capital and reputation, and if any of these is ever diminished, the last is the most difficult to restore.”

Our Purpose

Venture Bell’s purpose is to work together to build better financial futures. It focuses on the importance of collaboration to our business – working together both with one another as colleagues, and in partnership with our clients. And it also underlines our focus on sustainable, long-term outcomes, together with an aspirational focus on the future. We incorporate sustainability into our business operations and our investment process. We do this for and together with all our stakeholders, including our customers, employees, suppliers, investee companies, regulators, policy makers and the communities in which we operate. We take responsibility for our impact on society as a whole and the environment.

Sustainable Business Operations

We believe we have a role to play in improving access to financial services through education and advocacy with the aim of increased financial inclusion and wellness. We strive to help our diverse and talented colleagues achieve their full potential and to make our supply chain more accessible to a wider range of businesses. We will help to create a better future for the environment by minimizing the impact of our business operations through meaningful business transformation.

Our core values are Integrity and Trust. Together, these drive how we work with each other and with our clients, customers and partners.

We critically evaluate our governance practices and standards to ensure that we run our operations and make business decisions in a transparent, sound and ethical manner that meets industry best practices and is in full compliance with laws and regulations in all the jurisdictions in which we operate.

Our Community

Financial inclusion is an essential part of improving people’s social and economic mobility. We are passionate about improving access for those that have traditionally been excluded through education and advocacy.

We are reaching deep into workplaces to support financial wellness and supporting people to build better financial futures for themselves and their families. We have also taken these initiatives public, to help as many people as possible engage in their own financial wellbeing.

Over the last three years, we have been raising awareness of the disabled investment and pensions gap through our award-winning global ‘Disabilities and Money’ campaign. Bringing together media, policy makers and the financial services industry, the campaign has successfully highlighted the issues preventing disabled people from accessing financial services and brought together a range of stakeholders to discuss and develop solutions.

Our employee Corporate Social Responsibility Committee donates almost $1million a year to causes in their local communities, with a strong focus on tackling social disadvantage and the environment.

Venture Bell is proud to support the UK and international Foundations, all independent charitable organisations that support non-profit organisations in countries where Venture Bell has a presence.

Our Suppliers

Supply chain sustainability has been one of our main engagement themes as investors and we intend to apply the same rules to our own supply chain. Our suppliers are expected to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct which sets out our standards, values and principles. Sustainability-related questions are included in all our tenders and have a bearing on the overall scoring and selection process. We established a Sustainability Delivery Group in 2020 to lead our Responsible Supply Chain program. Three pathways have been identified:

equal opportunity to compete for Venture Bell business achieved through supplier diversity,
prompt payment to demonstrate fair treatment of our partners,
supply chain sustainability monitoring on environment, labor & human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement to ensure transparency and identify blind spots requiring remediation.

Business Conduct and Ethics

Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics sets out basic principles to guide employee conduct. The code is supported by employee conduct policies and programs and reinforced through employee training.

We have zero tolerance in relation to illegal or unethical conduct and this is articulated in our relevant policies, including policies on conflicts of interest, gifts and entertainment, money laundering and counter terrorism, fraud, sanctions, outside activities, political contributions, and bribery and corruption. Any employee who violates the requirements of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, or many of our other policies, is subject to disciplinary action.

Venture Bell expects the same high standards of those who represent us and we conduct appropriate due diligence on our business partners according to the risks they present, including corruption risk.

Venture Bell’s Supplier Code of Conduct & Ethics outlines the minimum expectations and standards of all Venture Bell Suppliers in relation to human rights, inclusion and diversity, environmental sustainability, integrity and ethics in management practices.

Anti-Bribery and Corruption

Our Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy explicitly prohibits any transaction, including facilitation payments, which could constitute a bribe or a corrupt payment to or from a public official or body, or a private entity or individual. Our policy applies to our employees and to those who represent us, including any business partners who operate on our behalf. We consider the anti-bribery and corruption policies of potential new business partners as we conduct our due diligence.

We seek to assess and mitigate our exposure – and our clients’ exposure – to corruption risk. We do this through assessing the risks associated with our activities and by putting in place governance and oversight in relation to higher risk transactions or relationships. Any potential violations of our policies are investigated and reported to relevant governance committees.