Case study: How FinecoBank promotes a culture of responsible banking among its employees

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 addition to ongoing engagement with all stakeholders, FinecoBank has conducted targeted engagement activities with a select group of key stakeholders to identify the material impacts, risks, and opportunities related to sustainability. The stakeholders involved for this purpose include:

• Management (internal stakeholders)
• Personal Financial Advisors (PFAs) (internal stakeholders)
• Financial investors (external stakeholders)

Internal stakeholders participated as follows:

• Management through regular meetings within the activities of the Internal Sustainability Management Committee, composed of top management and heads of various bank departments, supported by the Sustainability Structure and the Chief Risk Officer.
• PFAs through two dedicated workshop sessions.

External stakeholders, specifically financial investors, were engaged via one-on-one meetings supported by the Sustainability Structure and Investor Relations team.

FinecoBank also updated its list of stakeholders within the value chain, categorizing them based on their position (upstream, own operations, downstream), the nature of their relationship with the bank (operational, commercial, strategic), and their role within the bank’s ecosystem.

How does FinecoBank promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees?

In its 2024 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement FinecoBank reports that it took the following actions to promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees:

FinecoBank’s Group-wide culture of compliance and integrity is essential for being recognized as a trustworthy partner by all stakeholders. It is crucial to ensure adherence to laws and regulations, to uphold fair business practices, and to effectively manage risks.

This commitment to a compliance culture applies to all employees, members of the executive, strategic, and control bodies, as well as Personal Financial Advisors and third parties such as suppliers, business consultants, and related agents.

FinecoBank has adopted a Code of Ethics that sets out rules designed to ensure that the conduct of all recipients is consistently guided by principles of fairness, cooperation, loyalty, transparency, and mutual respect.

At the Group level, the “Charter of Integrity, Code of Conduct, and Compliance Culture” policy defines: (i) the principles and values that Group companies aim to uphold in their operations, including the rights, duties, and responsibilities towards all stakeholders, which serve as guiding principles for corporate decisions and conduct and form the foundation of the Group’s corporate culture; and (ii) the common principles and guidelines aimed at establishing, promoting, and supporting a culture of compliance as an integral part of the Group’s values, reinforcing behaviours that conform to applicable rules, regulations, processes, ethical standards, and sound business practices.

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 FinecoBank, 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://images.finecobank.com/docs/pdf/pub/corporate/sostenibilita/responsible-banking-progress-statement-2024-en.pdf

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