About / ESG

Environmental, Social & Governance

ESG considerations are an important principle in Palisades’ approach to delivering value to clients, investors, counterparties, employees, communities and stakeholders.

Our Philosophy

Environmental, Social & Governance (”ESG”)

Palisades is committed to delivering value to our clients and investors by providing investment management strategies tailored for residential loans and real estate markets. We believe ESG factors can influence the quality of our residential loan and real estate-related investments and our professionals recognize the importance of integrating ESG factors into Palisades’ core investment management processes. We believe that sustainable value creation and long-term risk mitigation are best achieved when considering ESG factors in our investment management process.

"...we’re not trying to create some sort of separate approach, but instead improve core processes that drive the way we invest, because we have a perspective that incorporating these additional considerations actually will make us better investors across time."

ESG In Practice

Palisades considers ESG factors based upon its core business of

01.

Investing in various types of consumer and business purpose residential loans

02.

Managing risk by taking an active role in asset level credit decisions

03.

Overseeing the disposition of property and real estate-related assets

Investment professionals at Palisades consider a wide range of macroeconomic, demographic, socioeconomic and geographic factors when developing an outlook with respect to investment strategies, portfolio construction and credit risk management activities.

These considerations include analyzing the suitability of credit products for individuals and businesses, providing credit to small business and self-employed borrowers, supporting the development of updated and energy efficient housing structures, developing strategies to assist credit-challenged borrowers, selecting vendors that support ethical consumer lending and default management activities, and ensuring proper maintenance of properties. Palisades and its subsidiaries maintain a commitment to planning, operating and responsibly scaling our business with strict ESG principles in mind.

Environmental

Investments in real estate-related assets, and in particular residential housing, can have a direct impact on the environment; conversely, Palisades also recognizes that the environment can directly impact real estate-related assets. Palisades considers environmental factors not traditionally contemplated by non-ESG conscious firms when investing in residential loans and managing real estate-related assets. Palisades seeks to ensure properties are well maintained and materially unaffected by natural disaster through its network of vendors during the investment due diligence and ongoing asset management processes.

Social

Social factors may impact our loan and credit-based portfolios due to considerations concerning credit availability, default management processes, and the communities our real estate projects inhabit. Palisades’ investment professionals consider a borrower’s ability to repay the debt obligations when acquiring loans for investment in the context of state or federal consumer lending laws. Upon acquisition, Palisades takes an active role in managing credit and asset level defaults. Alongside strict adherence to consumer protection policies, our investment professionals seek to engage with vendors and partners that are experienced in handling credit defaults in a socially responsible manner. Palisades engages in analytical review of all credit default scenarios in partnership with vendors and servicers to ensure our borrowers will be in a position to afford a modification in light of their evolving financial situation. This review, which is in line with our underwriting review at acquisition, reduces the potential for future re-defaults that harm borrowers and the communities they inhabit. Finally, Palisades considers the social context in which property development or re-development projects securing loans in our portfolio fit. Palisades’ professionals review and consider a finished project’s adherence to comparable transactions in terms of size and finished value ensuring the project is sustainable.

Failing to maintain socially responsible standards surrounding the elements of our strategies may expose our portfolios to risks such as (i) Federal, state and/or local fines or sanctions, (ii) consumer or borrower perceptions of Palisades’ or its associated vendor’s business practices, (iii) costs and losses incurred during default management and loss mitigation activities, and/or (iv) losses incurred due to lack of instrument or underlying property liquidity.

Governance

Palisades believes governance plays a multifaceted role when investing in and managing consumer and business purpose loan products. Palisades’ professionals consider how vendors and counterparties maintain standards with respect to the protection of personally identifiable information (“PII”). Our firm maintains policies and procedures for maintaining PII within internal systems as well as the means our professionals transmit such data to third parties. Palisades' professionals seek to avoid investing alongside lenders or loan servicers with a poor record of corporate governance. We perform due diligence on our vendors to ensure proper processes are in place to avoid violations of consumer lending or protection laws, breaches or mismanagement of PII, and lending practices that fail to identify borrower fraud. Failing to adhere to governance standards may expose our client portfolios to substantial financial risk and our firm to reputational risk. To the extent these processes fail to function properly, Palisades works with our vendors to monitor and ensure issues are remedied.

Research has shown that companies with strong sustainability ratings and a diverse workforce, drives better results in performance. Palisades’ commits to Diversity and Inclusion in its leadership team. Palisades Professionals understand that by having a diverse team with different walks of life, each team member may have a unique perspective to share. The leadership at Palisades facilitate intellectual diversity by ensuring every team member’s perspective is heard to optimize our investment strategy.

Adding value for Stakeholders through a commitment to Environment, Social, and Governance factors.