Industry Comparison

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You are viewing information about the following Industries:

Mortgage Finance
The Mortgage Finance industry provides an essential public good by enabling consumers to purchase homes and contributing to the overall home ownership rate. Entities in the industry lend capital to individual and commercial customers using property as collateral. The primary products are residential and commercial mortgages, while other services offered include mortgage servicing, title insurance, closing and settlement services, and valuation. In addition, mortgage finance entities own, manage and finance real estate-related investments such as mortgage pass-through certificates and collateralised mortgage obligations. Recent trends in the regulatory environment indicate a significant shift towards consumer protection, disclosure and accountability. Regulatory changes made in response to the global 2008 financial crisis demonstrate the potential for further alignment between the interests of society and those of long-term investors.
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Health Care Distributors
Health care distributors purchase, inventory and sell pharmaceutical products and medical equipment to hospitals, pharmacies and physicians. Demand for the industry’s services is driven largely by insurance rates, pharmaceutical spending, illness and demographics. The health care sector continues to face an emphasis on reduced costs and improved efficiencies, which also will affect the Health Care Distributors industry. Entities in this industry face challenges from consolidation and partnerships between pharmacies, payers and manufacturers.
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Relevant Issues for both Industries (7 of 26)

Why are some issues greyed out?

The SASB Standards vary by industry based on the different sustainability-related risks and opportunities within an industry. The issues in grey were not identified during the standard-setting process as the most likely to be useful to investors, so they are not included in the Standard. Over time, as the ISSB continues to receive market feedback, some issues may be added or removed from the Standard. Each company determines which sustainability-related risks and opportunities are relevant to its business. The Standard is designed for the typical company in an industry, but individual companies may choose to report on different sustainability-related risks and opportunities based on their unique business model.

Environment
- GHG Emissions
  The category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
- Air Quality
- Energy Management
- Water & Wastewater Management
- Waste & Hazardous Materials Management
- Ecological Impacts
Social Capital
- Human Rights & Community Relations
- Customer Privacy
- Data Security
- Access & Affordability
- Product Quality & Safety
  The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products.
- Customer Welfare
  The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
- Selling Practices & Product Labeling
  The category addresses social issues that may arise from a failure to manage the transparency, accuracy, and comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, and labeling of products and services. It includes, but is not limited to, advertising standards and regulations, ethical and responsible marketing practices, misleading or deceptive labeling, as well as discriminatory or predatory selling and lending practices. This may include deceptive or aggressive selling practices in which incentive structures for employees could encourage the sale of products or services that are not in the best interest of customers or clients.
Human Capital
- Labour Practices
- Employee Health & Safety
- Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion
Business Model and Innovation
- Product Design & Lifecycle Management
  The category addresses incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories.
- Business Model Resilience
- Supply Chain Management
- Materials Sourcing & Efficiency
- Physical Impacts of Climate Change
  The category addresses the company’s ability to manage risks and opportunities associated with direct exposure of its owned or controlled assets and operations to actual or potential physical impacts of climate change. It captures environmental and social issues that may arise from operational disruptions due to physical impacts of climate change. It further captures socio-economic issues resulting from companies failing to incorporate climate change consideration in products and services sold, such as insurance policies and mortgages. The category relates to the company’s ability to adapt to increased frequency and severity of extreme weather, shifting climate, sea level risk, and other expected physical impacts of climate change. Management may involve enhancing resiliency of physical assets and/or surrounding infrastructure as well as incorporation of climate change-related considerations into key business activities (e.g., mortgage and insurance underwriting, planning and development of real estate projects).
Leadership and Governance
- Business Ethics
  The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behaviour that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error.
- Competitive Behaviour
- Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment
- Critical Incident Risk Management
- Systemic Risk Management

Disclosure Topics

What is the relationship between General Issue Category and Disclosure Topics?

The General Issue Category is an industry-agnostic version of the Disclosure Topics that appear in each SASB Standard. Disclosure topics represent the industry-specific impacts of General Issue Categories. The industry-specific Disclosure Topics ensure each SASB Standard is tailored to the industry, while the General Issue Categories enable comparability across industries. For example, Health & Nutrition is a disclosure topic in the Non-Alcoholic Beverages industry, representing an industry-specific measure of the general issue of Customer Welfare. The issue of Customer Welfare, however, manifests as the Counterfeit Drugs disclosure topic in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals industry.

Mortgage Finance Remove
Access Standard
- GHG Emissions
  The category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
  
  None
- Product Quality & Safety
  The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products.
  
  None
- Customer Welfare
  The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
  
  None
- Selling Practices & Product Labeling
  The category addresses social issues that may arise from a failure to manage the transparency, accuracy, and comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, and labeling of products and services. It includes, but is not limited to, advertising standards and regulations, ethical and responsible marketing practices, misleading or deceptive labeling, as well as discriminatory or predatory selling and lending practices. This may include deceptive or aggressive selling practices in which incentive structures for employees could encourage the sale of products or services that are not in the best interest of customers or clients.
  - Lending Practices
    The approach mortgage finance entities take when incentivising employees and how they communicate with customers is important for more than one reason. First, the incentive structures and compensation policies of loan originators may unintentionally encourage them to promote lending products and services unsuitable for their clients. Second, a lack of transparency provided to customers with respect to primary and add-on products may impair an entity’s reputation and invite regulatory scrutiny and costly litigation. Finally, as a consequence, the resulting client portfolios may contain a high concentration of risky products sold. Also, laws and regulations restricting predatory lending may prohibit mortgage originators from receiving compensation tied to loan value and may require additional disclosures be provided to borrowers. Entities that develop transparent information, give fair advice to customers and clearly disclose their lending practices may assist shareholders in determining which entities better protect shareholder value.
  - Discriminatory Lending
    The Mortgage Finance industry aggregates data to determine loan terms and conditions including important provisions such as loan size, interest rate, up-front points or other fees. However, the complex process may result in intentional or unintentional discriminatory lending practices by the mortgage originator. Discriminatory lending may result in fines or settlements for violations of regulations, increased reputational risk, and negative financial performance because of loan mispricing. Disclosing internal processes to ensure non-discriminatory lending, disclosing the amount of mortgage lending categorised by minority status along with relevant financial characteristics, and disclosing the amount of monetary losses resulting from legal proceedings associated with violations of applicable laws and regulations may help investors assess entity performance. Entities in the Mortgage Finance industry may reduce the risk of discriminatory lending, including unintended discriminatory lending, by implementing strong processes, enforcing internal controls, and proactively monitoring their loan portfolio, among other techniques.
- Product Design & Lifecycle Management
  The category addresses incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories.
  
  None
- Physical Impacts of Climate Change
  The category addresses the company’s ability to manage risks and opportunities associated with direct exposure of its owned or controlled assets and operations to actual or potential physical impacts of climate change. It captures environmental and social issues that may arise from operational disruptions due to physical impacts of climate change. It further captures socio-economic issues resulting from companies failing to incorporate climate change consideration in products and services sold, such as insurance policies and mortgages. The category relates to the company’s ability to adapt to increased frequency and severity of extreme weather, shifting climate, sea level risk, and other expected physical impacts of climate change. Management may involve enhancing resiliency of physical assets and/or surrounding infrastructure as well as incorporation of climate change-related considerations into key business activities (e.g., mortgage and insurance underwriting, planning and development of real estate projects).
  - Environmental Risk to Mortgaged Properties
    An increase in the frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change may have an adverse impact on the Mortgage Finance industry. Specifically, hurricanes, floods and other climate change-related events have the potential to result in missed payments and loan defaults, while also decreasing the value of underlying assets. Entities which incorporate climate-related risks into lending analysis may be better positioned to create value over the long-term.
- Business Ethics
  The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behaviour that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error.
  
  None
Health Care Distributors Remove
Access Standard
- GHG Emissions
  The category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
  - Fleet Fuel Management
    The distribution of health care products and supplies requires significant transportation networks. Concern over climate change and dwindling natural resources may affect fuel pricing, and it may expose health care distributors to cost fluctuations. Entities that improve transportation efficiencies may be better positioned to create value over the long-term.
- Product Quality & Safety
  The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products.
  - Product Safety
    Health Care Distributors are integral to the delivery of consumer health care products. The industry has a shared responsibility with manufacturers to ensure product safety and answer concerns related to toxicity. Further, Health Care Distributors face additional risks related to controlled substances and mislabelled products. Entities that improve safety or effectively manage other product concerns may better protect shareholder value.
- Customer Welfare
  The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
  - Counterfeit Drugs
    The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that counterfeit drugs represent more than 10% of the pharmaceutical supply chain in low- and middle-income countries. The issue of counterfeit or substandard medication also presents a significant risk in developed economies. Health Care Distributors may face added costs as applicable jurisdictional legal or regulatory authorities implement drug supply chain regulations to prevent counterfeit or mislabelled drugs from entering the pharmaceutical distribution system.
- Selling Practices & Product Labeling
  The category addresses social issues that may arise from a failure to manage the transparency, accuracy, and comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, and labeling of products and services. It includes, but is not limited to, advertising standards and regulations, ethical and responsible marketing practices, misleading or deceptive labeling, as well as discriminatory or predatory selling and lending practices. This may include deceptive or aggressive selling practices in which incentive structures for employees could encourage the sale of products or services that are not in the best interest of customers or clients.
  
  None
- Product Design & Lifecycle Management
  The category addresses incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories.
  - Product Lifecycle Management
    Health Care Distributors have a responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of the products that they distribute. Specific opportunities to address these impacts exist in product packaging and take-back programmes. Entities that manage these concerns properly may meet customer demand and reduce associated costs more effectively.
- Physical Impacts of Climate Change
  The category addresses the company’s ability to manage risks and opportunities associated with direct exposure of its owned or controlled assets and operations to actual or potential physical impacts of climate change. It captures environmental and social issues that may arise from operational disruptions due to physical impacts of climate change. It further captures socio-economic issues resulting from companies failing to incorporate climate change consideration in products and services sold, such as insurance policies and mortgages. The category relates to the company’s ability to adapt to increased frequency and severity of extreme weather, shifting climate, sea level risk, and other expected physical impacts of climate change. Management may involve enhancing resiliency of physical assets and/or surrounding infrastructure as well as incorporation of climate change-related considerations into key business activities (e.g., mortgage and insurance underwriting, planning and development of real estate projects).
  
  None
- Business Ethics
  The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behaviour that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error.
  - Business Ethics
    Health Care Distributors are subject to various jurisdictional laws and regulations regarding false marketing claims, bribery, corruption and other unethical business practices. Entities that ensure compliance with relevant regulations may avoid litigation, which could result in costly fines or settlements.

General Issue Category

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GHG Emissions

Fleet Fuel Management
The distribution of health care products and supplies requires significant transportation networks. Concern over climate change and dwindling natural resources may affect fuel pricing, and it may expose health care distributors to cost fluctuations. Entities that improve transportation efficiencies may be better positioned to create value over the long-term.

Product Quality & Safety

Product Safety
Health Care Distributors are integral to the delivery of consumer health care products. The industry has a shared responsibility with manufacturers to ensure product safety and answer concerns related to toxicity. Further, Health Care Distributors face additional risks related to controlled substances and mislabelled products. Entities that improve safety or effectively manage other product concerns may better protect shareholder value.

Customer Welfare

Counterfeit Drugs
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that counterfeit drugs represent more than 10% of the pharmaceutical supply chain in low- and middle-income countries. The issue of counterfeit or substandard medication also presents a significant risk in developed economies. Health Care Distributors may face added costs as applicable jurisdictional legal or regulatory authorities implement drug supply chain regulations to prevent counterfeit or mislabelled drugs from entering the pharmaceutical distribution system.

Selling Practices & Product Labeling

Lending Practices
The approach mortgage finance entities take when incentivising employees and how they communicate with customers is important for more than one reason. First, the incentive structures and compensation policies of loan originators may unintentionally encourage them to promote lending products and services unsuitable for their clients. Second, a lack of transparency provided to customers with respect to primary and add-on products may impair an entity’s reputation and invite regulatory scrutiny and costly litigation. Finally, as a consequence, the resulting client portfolios may contain a high concentration of risky products sold. Also, laws and regulations restricting predatory lending may prohibit mortgage originators from receiving compensation tied to loan value and may require additional disclosures be provided to borrowers. Entities that develop transparent information, give fair advice to customers and clearly disclose their lending practices may assist shareholders in determining which entities better protect shareholder value.
Discriminatory Lending
The Mortgage Finance industry aggregates data to determine loan terms and conditions including important provisions such as loan size, interest rate, up-front points or other fees. However, the complex process may result in intentional or unintentional discriminatory lending practices by the mortgage originator. Discriminatory lending may result in fines or settlements for violations of regulations, increased reputational risk, and negative financial performance because of loan mispricing. Disclosing internal processes to ensure non-discriminatory lending, disclosing the amount of mortgage lending categorised by minority status along with relevant financial characteristics, and disclosing the amount of monetary losses resulting from legal proceedings associated with violations of applicable laws and regulations may help investors assess entity performance. Entities in the Mortgage Finance industry may reduce the risk of discriminatory lending, including unintended discriminatory lending, by implementing strong processes, enforcing internal controls, and proactively monitoring their loan portfolio, among other techniques.

Product Design & Lifecycle Management

Product Lifecycle Management
Health Care Distributors have a responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of the products that they distribute. Specific opportunities to address these impacts exist in product packaging and take-back programmes. Entities that manage these concerns properly may meet customer demand and reduce associated costs more effectively.

Physical Impacts of Climate Change

Environmental Risk to Mortgaged Properties
An increase in the frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change may have an adverse impact on the Mortgage Finance industry. Specifically, hurricanes, floods and other climate change-related events have the potential to result in missed payments and loan defaults, while also decreasing the value of underlying assets. Entities which incorporate climate-related risks into lending analysis may be better positioned to create value over the long-term.

Business Ethics

Business Ethics
Health Care Distributors are subject to various jurisdictional laws and regulations regarding false marketing claims, bribery, corruption and other unethical business practices. Entities that ensure compliance with relevant regulations may avoid litigation, which could result in costly fines or settlements.

Relevant Issues for both Industries (7 of 26)

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