Case study: How BAC takes action on its PRB targets: climate strategy and inclusion and financial health

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.

BAC defines its stakeholders as individuals, social groups, and organizations that could be significantly impacted by the company’s activities, products, and services, as well as those whose actions might influence BAC’s capacity to successfully implement the strategies necessary to achieve its goals.

The comprehensive process of identifying stakeholders required a thorough understanding of the elements within BAC’s value chain.

To achieve this, BAC developed the following methodology:

1. Identification of risks deriving from each value creation process and new emerging stakeholders.
2. Information consolidation, validation, and analysis.
3. Graphic reproduction of the main process flows for creating economic value.
4. Identification of the main stakeholders related to each process.
5. Practical workshops with leaders and executives responsible for these processes.
6. Identification of the main stakeholders related to each process.

BAC periodically reviewed previously obtained results to ensure they remained current and to validate each stakeholder’s connections to the company’s primary value creation processes, assessing their level of influence and significance.

This exercise greatly enhanced BAC’s ability to identify and map stakeholders, resulting in a more thorough analysis. BAC recognized that, in fulfilling its commitment to transparency and accountability, it was essential to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholder expectations and to identify potential impacts and issues that were important to them regarding the bank.

• Shareholders
• Customers
• Vendors
• Internal public
• Strategic partners
• Citizenry
• Competitors
• Regulators
• Opinion makers
• Government

Consult Stakeholders
In 2023, for the third consecutive year, BAC assessed its reputation regionally by utilizing a reputation evaluation tool based on a multi-stakeholder methodology consisting of six assessments and over twenty information sources.

This study also examines BAC’s financial leadership in comparison to leading companies in each of the countries where it operates. It encompasses a business ranking by country and analyzes key variables across various management areas, including Sustainability, Brand and Reputation, Economic-Financial Results, Quality of Business Offering, Talent, Ethics and Transparency, Corporate Responsibility, International Dimension of the Company, Innovation, and others.

Map of stakeholders

Relationship mechanism

Having a clear understanding of who its main stakeholders are, BAC has established a diverse range of information, consultation, and dialogue mechanisms to foster various levels of engagement with them.

LEVEL 1

Information

• Financial and sustainability reports
• Corporate website: baccredomatic.com/es-cr/nuestra-empresa
• Social media: /BACCredomatic /baccredomaticnetwork
• Leaflets, posters and screens in branches I

LEVEL 2

Consultation

• Customer service studies, reputation study, surveys, focus groups, etc.
• Transaction and relationship surveys to evaluate the NPS (Net Promoter Score)
• Organizational climate evaluation
• Voice of Employee program, eNPS, Pulses
• Innovation system, competitions

LEVEL 3

Dialogue

• Call centers
• VoC (Voice of Customer) program
• Web chats, email, online contact forms
• Ombudsperson program, Ethics Line
• Social media: /BACCredomatic /baccredomaticnetwork
• Formal and informal meetings, conferences, talks, and workshops
• Round table discussions with internal and external stakeholders

LEVEL 4

Participation

• Prototyping with customers
• Installed capacity creation through advisory, co-creation, and networking
• Ideas campaign

What actions were taken by BAC on its PRB targets, climate strategy and inclusion and financial health?

In its 2024 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template BAC reports that it took the following actions on its PRB targets, climate strategy and inclusion and financial health:

• SMART Target 1: Climate strategy
• In 2023, BAC defined a roadmap for its decarbonization process, with these activities currently being carried out in 2024. In the next PRB report, BAC will include the results of the implementation of this strategy and its progress towards the stated objectives.
• BAC is currently working on profiling its priority clients and assessing their progress in decarbonization processes. These activities are crucial for identifying specific actions based on the type of client and their status on the path to decarbonization.

• SMART Target 2: Inclusion and financial health
• In 2023, BAC aimed to achieve a 30% conversion rate associated with digital financial education, with two products defined for each country, ultimately reaching a conversion rate of 33% by the end of that period.
• In 2024, BAC established its SMART goal for the MSME segment. In its next report, BAC will provide an update on the progress of this goal.

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 BAC, 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.baccredomatic.com/sites/default/files/2024-08/Informe PRB BAC 2024 EN Final.pdf

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