Case study: How BNP Paribas promotes a culture of responsible banking among its employees
As a prominent leader in banking and financial services across Europe, BNP Paribas distinguishes itself through a strong, integrated, and diversified business model organized into three operating divisions. Its complementary capabilities enable the bank to meet customer needs by providing long-term guidance and advice, while delivering strong and sustainable performance. The Group supports its entire customer base—individuals, corporations, and institutions—in their energy and ecological transition and promotes social inclusion by offering tailored products and services to suit their specific requirements. BNP Paribas is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) and is, accordingly, promoting a culture of responsible banking among its employees. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2025 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template by BNP Paribas prepared in relation to its implementation of the PRB, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Which Principles for Responsible Banking have been addressed?
The Principles for Responsible Banking addressed in this case are:
- Principle 5: Governance & Culture
- Principle 4: Stakeholders
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- How BNP Paribas proceeded with stakeholder identification and consultation, and
- How BNP Paribas promotes a culture of responsible banking among its employees
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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.
Engaging in dialogue with stakeholders is central to BNP Paribas’ social and environmental responsibility. The Group’s dedication to maintaining open and constructive communication aims primarily to better identify and understand the interests, perspectives, and expectations of its stakeholders, as well as the impacts of its activities.
This approach allows the Group to incorporate stakeholder insights into the development of its products and services, ensuring they align with genuine customer needs, evolving business lines, and strategic objectives. Additionally, this dialogue is crucial for informing stakeholders about the Group’s decisions and actions, promoting transparency and clarity.
BNP Paribas recognizes a diverse range of stakeholders with varying levels of interaction, including its customers (individuals, professionals, corporate clients, and institutions), employees and their representative bodies, shareholders (both individual and institutional investors), suppliers, financial and non-financial rating agencies, regulatory authorities and public institutions, civil society and its organizations.
How does BNP Paribas promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees?
In its 2025 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template BNP Paribas reports that it took the following actions to promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees:
Training
BNP Paribas invests heavily in employee training, with a particular focus on ESG topics, supported by dedicated monitoring systems. In 2024, 77,270 Group employees participated in Sustainability Academy training, and a specialized program on respecting human rights during business conduct was introduced to 1,600 targeted employees. Since its inception at the end of 2022, a total of 133,000 Group employees have been trained through the Sustainability Academy.
Additionally, Group employees are actively engaged through participation in “fresks,” collaborative workshops designed to raise awareness about Climate Change Mitigation and Biodiversity issues among employees and Executive Committees. In 2024, over 12,000 employees across 53 countries took part in these workshops. This experience is also extended to individual shareholders.
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
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- 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.
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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 BNP Paribas, 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://cdn-group.bnpparibas.com/uploads/file/bnpparibas_2025_prb_reporting.pdf
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