Case study: How Banco Popular Dominicano 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.

Banco Popular Dominicano has identified seven interest groups based on the principles of the Global Compact and its internal Corporate Governance foundations. This approach ensures that all of Banco Popular’s actions take into account the potential impacts, both direct and indirect, that it may generate.

Banco Popular Dominicano promotes meeting spaces with these interest groups to establish ongoing and transparent dialogues, enabling the understanding and identification of the key concerns of each group, as well as their evolving expectations in light of new trends and global risks.

The identified interest groups are:

1. Shareholders
2. Clients/users
3. Staff
4. Suppliers
5. Regulators
6. Society
7. Associations

Banco Popular Dominicano involves these interest groups in the double materiality analysis conducted every two years, seeking to understand the issues they deem relevant to its scope of action through surveys and individual interviews. For material topics, key performance indicators are developed, which are monitored and reported to enhance transparency and accountability regarding actual and potential impacts.

Additionally, in 2023, Banco Popular Dominicano incorporated the Project and Alliance Management Department to ensure representation in relevant dialogue and consultation spaces, maintain communication channels with allies, and address their concerns and comments effectively. Through the Popular Foundation, Banco Popular Dominicano contributes to the execution of the organization’s sustainability policies, premises, and commitments, manages social investment projects, and works to strengthen other foundations and local social organizations, promoting sustainable initiatives that benefit the nation’s human, social, economic, and environmental well-being.

To achieve the objectives set forth, Banco Popular Dominicano will implement engagement plans with business and corporate clients in prioritized sectors and establish platforms for dialogue and training for clients, employees, and other interest groups to explore the sustainability challenges they face and the opportunities that arise from addressing these challenges.

How did Banco Popular Dominicano work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2023 Sustainability Report Banco Popular Dominicano reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

Banco Popular Dominicano maintains an ongoing communication flow with a variety of stakeholders. This includes annual meetings with communicators and opinion leaders to discuss the primary local and national needs, as well as the role of the banking institution in addressing these issues. Additionally, Banco Popular Dominicano conducts reputation studies to gauge the perceptions, levels of credibility, and preferences of different interest groups, including the public, collaborators, and clients, utilizing surveys and in-depth individual interviews.

To enhance the integration of PBR into its management practices, Banco Popular Dominicano will create forums for dialogue, training, and experience exchange with the sectors prioritized in its objectives. This will help Banco Popular Dominicano understand their current circumstances and sustainability performance, identify challenges, and explore opportunities associated with transitioning toward more sustainable practices, in alignment with the Bank’s climate and circular economy goals. Furthermore, Banco Popular Dominicano will collaborate with its business and marketing divisions, taking into account the interests and expectations of its stakeholders, to develop new sustainable products and services tailored to its priority impact areas. At the same time, Banco Popular Dominicano will continue to promote existing initiatives, such as the Hazte Eco portfolio, financing for renewable energies, and the green leasing portfolio.

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 Banco Popular Dominicano, 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://popularenlinea.com/Personas/Publicaciones-Institucionales/publicacionesinstitucionales/2024/INFORME-SOSTENIBILIDAD-24-JULIO-2024.pdf

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