Brandywine GLOBAL Implements Business Continuity Protocols in Response to COVID-19 Outbreak

As reported cases and news of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), now considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), continue to spread, Brandywine Global would like to assure our clients that we are regularly monitoring the evolving situation and implementing appropriate business continuity plans. Comprehensive precautions and protocols are in place to maintain investment management, client service, and business operations while protecting our employees.

Brandywine Global has a comprehensive business continuity plan to satisfy fiduciary duties and business requirements and provide transparency to our constituents—clients, regulators, affiliates, and service providers—with respect to our ability to sustain essential functions during an emergency and to resume normal operations following such an event. Our plan considers many types of risk, with primary focus on employee safety, safeguarding client assets, maintaining the integrity and security of systems, and maintaining the ability to communicate to all constituents.

Currently, we have engaged the Awareness Phase of our business continuity plan with additional steps commensurate with the changing situation and guidance from the CDC and WHO. These include:

a. Restricting all business travel, with exceptions in extremely limited circumstances only and requiring managing partner approval.
b. Restricting all visitors, with exceptions in extremely limited circumstances only and requiring managing partner approval.
c. Since mid-February, we have maintained a travel log for employees and their immediate family members. We continue to screen via the travel log those employees and their household members who have engaged in: (i) international travel; (ii) overnight travel; and (iii) daily travel outside of the designated local region not related to normal work commuting.

Members of our continuity team, who have been meeting weekly since early February to monitor COVID-19 guidance from health organizations and evaluate Brandywine Global’s response, are now meeting daily. This team will continue to meet daily, or more often as needed, to evaluate the situation until the present threat is fully resolved as determined by the CDC, WHO, and local municipal health agencies.

As part of our business continuity plan, Brandywine Global invested in hardware, software, and collaboration tools to enable employees the opportunity and flexibility to work remotely, securely, and reliably for extended periods.

Additionally, our investment teams have the necessary resources to replicate their office operating environment remotely, providing the ability to effectively communicate, share materials, and collaborate and ensuring seamless portfolio management.

Effective March 16, 2020, we implemented remote work procedures globally to encourage social distancing and limit the possibility for cross-infection. To the extent that a highly limited number of employees is required to be on site, we have made provisions to ensure appropriate work-space distancing. Additionally, designated employees with similar responsibilities are mandated to stay away from the office. Further, we have enacted specific mandates for key investment personnel who are prohibited from being in the same building, in or out of the office.

Each new employee receives a business continuity orientation. A major underpinning of our business continuity approach is the ability of employees to access systems and applications remotely, which Brandywine Global regularly reviews and tests. In preparation for an extended work-from-home period, additional training and testing have been underway, including a successful Firm-wide test of remote access capabilities. We also routinely perform and review critical function crosstraining.

We appreciate how critical our key third-party service providers are in helping us execute our fiduciary responsibilities. In addition to extensive due diligence performed during the regular course of business, we have taken proactive measures to assess our vendors’ pandemic capabilities and are satisfied in their abilities to provide services without disruption.

Brandywine Global will continue to closely monitor the response and guidance of the CDC and WHO in order to keep our employees safe and our business running smoothly. We hope for the sustained health, safety, and well-being of our employees and constituents and of their families and communities around the world.

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