Case study: How Itaú Unibanco works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

In 2023, Itaú Unibanco engaged various stakeholders—such as clients, non-clients, employees, shareholders, investors, suppliers, service providers, civil society, experts, and opinion leaders—at different stages of identifying, analysing, and prioritizing its material issues.

This process was led by the Sustainability and Investor Relations departments, with the support of an external consultant, to align with new market criteria and standards. So far, the steps of scope identification, surveying potential topics through secondary data, and conducting online surveys and interviews with key stakeholders to gauge their views on material ESG issues have been completed.

Itaú Unibanco also considered significant market trends, the regulatory landscape, and stakeholder opinions and expectations as reflected in public meetings, communication channels, targeted surveys, investor interest statements, SASB sector materiality maps, feedback from ESG rating agencies, corporate sustainability index results, and public sentiment, as part of Itaú Unibanco’s strategic review.

The findings are also presented at Itaú Unibanco’s Governance forums and shared and discussed internally with business and back-office teams to develop integrated action plans addressing identified risks and opportunities.

How did Itaú Unibanco work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2023 Supplementary Index Itaú Unibanco reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

Responsible Investment
In 2023, Itaú Unibanco conducted over 453 client engagement meetings and organized 35 events and capacity-building courses with companies and institutions from various sectors, focusing on the sustainable and climate finance agenda. These included case studies and market best practice.

Itaú Unibanco also issued a monthly newsletter with market data and news relevant to environmental, social, and climate-related issues affecting its clients, such as emissions from Brazilian businesses in domestic and international markets, regulatory updates, climate solutions, and innovations in the ESG ecosystem.

ESG Integration into Investments
Since 2010, Itaú Unibanco has been refining its ESG business valuation models, aligned with international initiatives like SASB and TCFD. These models aim to estimate the financial impact of material ESG factors on its investees’ businesses, using traditional valuation techniques. This not only offers managers a clearer understanding of the associated risks and opportunities but also encourages investee businesses to adopt best practices.

ESG Advisory
Itaú Unibanco’s dedicated Business team advises clients and originates ESG-related transactions at Itaú BBA. Itaú Unibanco offers free ESG advisory services to target clients, encouraging them and recurring issuers to integrate ESG considerations into their business models in anticipation of future trends.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

FBRH Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Assurance:

First class PRB assurance services: The result of solid, hands-on ESG/ Sustainability experience

• • • FBRH is a GRI Certified Training Partner (Global), ISEP Training Centre and a member of CPD.
    • FBRH builds trust. Over 200 reviews from top professionals from around the world demonstrate our ability to build strong, trusting business relationships.
    • FBRH possesses a unique skill set that combines ESG/sustainability certified training, experience in advisory services and report preparation, and ESG/sustainability report assurance.

The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.

References:

This case study is based on published information by Itaú Unibanco, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.itau.com.br/download-file/v2/d/42787847-4cf6-4461-94a5-40ed237dca33/9e913502-e032-a766-457e-31ac6fc0a6df?origin=2

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