Case study: How the BPER Group 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.

The BPER Group formulates its strategies based on the needs and expectations of its various stakeholders. To achieve this, the Group employs a structured approach that engages stakeholders to identify their requirements, understand their expectations concerning the Group’s activities, and anticipate potential risks, transforming them into opportunities. This process involves analysing and segmenting stakeholders, allowing for a synthesis of diverse interests—economic, social, and environmental—and utilizing various tools and channels to facilitate a two-way dialogue with them.

Each year, the Group incorporates stakeholder perspectives through the materiality analysis update process, designed to assess the positive and negative impacts of its sustainability efforts. Engaging stakeholders is essential for the Group as it strives to meet its ESG goals. In 2023, two specific initiatives were implemented regarding “employees.” The Group held an “ESG Week,” featuring digital contests, idea-generation workshops, and informational sessions that showcased and shared its various commitments. Additionally, during ESG Week, employees contributed to updating the materiality analysis by completing a questionnaire that evaluated the significance of key issues based on their potential impacts on the external environment. Furthermore, three territorial Focus Groups were organized in regions where the BPER Group has a long-standing presence (Modena, Brescia, and Ancona/other areas of the Marche region). These meetings included representatives from significant stakeholder categories, such as local institutions, customers, and community organizations, who shared their views on topics like Climate Change, Community Support, and Financial Inclusion.

The BPER Group also maintains ongoing collaborations with various national and international institutions, financial community organizations, and other public or private entities, including insurance companies, research centres, universities, and the public administration. Engagement with stakeholders is further fostered through active participation in numerous associations and initiatives, such as the Global Compact Network Italy, Impronta Etica, Fondazione Sodalitas, the Fondazione per l’Educazione Finanziaria e il Risparmio (FEduF), the Forum for Sustainable Finance, Sustainability Makers, Associazione per la RSI, Valore D, and ABI working groups focused on sustainability, inclusion, and climate change. Specifically, the collaboration with the Fondazione per l’Educazione Finanziaria e il Risparmio (FEduF) enables the Group to engage school students annually in promoting financial education.

How did the BPER Group work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2023 PRB Report the BPER Group reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

The BPER Group has various policies designed to encourage its clients and customers to adopt sustainable practices. Primarily, the Group’s ESG Policy outlines the roles and responsibilities for managing customer relationships and identifying new client needs in terms of ESG considerations.

This policy encompasses multiple elements, including those related to climate change and financial inclusion, which have been highlighted as the most significant impact areas in the Impact Analysis.

Specifically addressing climate change, the Bank’s environmental statement titled “BPER Group’s Commitments Towards the Environment” outlines its commitment to reducing indirect environmental impacts resulting from the activities of third parties, such as clients. This approach enables BPER to influence the behavior of external parties by promoting sustainable choices.

As part of their collaboration with universities and other organizations, the Group’s banks promote, also on digital platforms, meetings and conferences on economic and sustainability topics, open for participation to all citizens.

Among these initiatives, BPER Banca, in partnership with the Università Cattolica di Piacenza, has organized a national Roadshow through its Territorial Departments and various local associations—such as Chambers of Commerce and Confindustria—to educate and inform SME clients and potential clients about sustainability and the corresponding opportunities for reporting their ESG performance.

Additionally, the Group has created a dedicated section on its website to facilitate discussions with stakeholders from a sustainability perspective. This section contains specific pages for various key stakeholder categories, including employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, the environment, and the community, with the aim of providing relevant information about the Bank’s initiatives and offering points of contact.

Another important document is the ESG-linked Loan Origination Policy, approved in December 2022. In alignment with its ESG Policy, BPER Banca has incorporated ESG criteria into this policy, signifying that the Bank performs ESG assessments of its clients. This not only mitigates risks associated with its operations but also raises awareness and promotes responsible lending practices across the Group and its clientele, guiding them on a sustainable trajectory.

In this context, understanding the needs and expectations of customers is crucial. Since 2019, the BPER Group has established a new communication system for its customers that facilitates continuous monitoring of the entire customer base. Through this system and other engagement channels, BPER manages customer relations with an ESG focus.

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.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by the BPER Group, 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://group.bper.it/documents/d/bper-istituzionale/report-prb-2023_eng

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