Case study: How Helaba identifies and works on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts

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.

Regular stakeholder engagement is a key component of Helaba’s materiality assessment process. To effectively identify stakeholders, Helaba utilizes a structured approach that evaluates both their influence on its activities and its impact on them. The insights and feedback gathered from this engagement are vital for Helaba’s action planning, ensuring that its sustainability initiatives meet stakeholder expectations and align with industry best practices. Moreover, the bank’s Code of Conduct promotes responsible interactions with all stakeholders.

Helaba places a strong emphasis on engaging actively with customers to better understand their needs and expectations, particularly in areas related to sustainable finance and ESG-focused products. As a proponent of a sustainable transition, Helaba’s Capital Markets Conference provided an opportunity to explore innovative financing solutions in the sustainable capital markets and the role of digital innovation in the financial sector. Additionally, Helaba maintains ongoing communication with regulators and policymakers to stay updated on evolving sustainability regulations and ensure compliance. Collaborations with non-governmental organizations offer valuable insights into societal expectations and emerging sustainability trends. Helaba’s active participation in various industry associations allows it to contribute to the development of best practices and industry standards through collaborative efforts.

Furthermore, Helaba regularly reports its business performance to the Supervisory Board, which holds the highest oversight authority within the organization. The Supervisory Board includes representatives from employee groups, political entities, and the business sector, guaranteeing comprehensive oversight of Helaba’s operations.

Helaba also actively involves its employees in sustainability matters, focusing on topics such as circularity, biodiversity, and climate change. Through a comprehensive training program, the bank equips its staff to accurately assess sustainability-related opportunities and risks. This extensive knowledge enables front-office teams to work more effectively with customers on sustainability issues.

How did Helaba identify and work on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts?

In its 2025 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template Helaba reports that it identified and worked on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts as follows:

Helaba recognizes that its core lending business is a crucial driver for advancing the transition toward a carbon-neutral, circular economy. The bank actively supports its clients in adopting socially and environmentally responsible practices by directing its lending resources toward sustainable sectors and initiatives. To identify new opportunities, Helaba focuses on financing companies with low emissions or low emission intensity, and provides transitional financing to support the decarbonization efforts of emission-intensive clients. As a result, Helaba continually expands its portfolio of tailored and innovative ESG products, including ESG-linked loans, investment loans with designated sustainable use of funds, and green promissory notes and bonds. From 2020 to 2023, Helaba facilitated 170 financing transactions featuring contractual sustainability elements, such as ESG-linked or green loans.

Helaba has secured additional lead mandates in sustainable finance and remains committed to demonstrating its expertise in this field. Additionally, the bank is steadily increasing project-specific financing in areas such as renewable energy, water, waste management, recycling, transportation, and social and digital infrastructure. Helaba’s ongoing efforts aim to encourage companies of all sizes—small, medium, and large—to participate in the sustainable transformation. Through these initiatives, Helaba makes a positive contribution to at least ten Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

As part of its KPI system, Helaba committed to increasing its sustainable portfolio to 50% by 2025. To reach this target, the bank has clearly defined which transactions qualify as sustainable within the scope of its sustainable lending and investment activities.

As of December 31, 2023, Helaba’s total sustainable finance portfolio reached €80.6 billion, representing an 8.3% increase from €74.4 billion in the previous year. The share of sustainable financing within the overall lending volume grew from 46% to 51%, enabling Helaba to achieve its target ahead of schedule. This success provides Helaba with the motivation to further advance its sustainability ambitions beyond 2025. The primary factor driving the overall growth in sustainable financing within the portfolio was the increase in new sustainable financing. By the end of 2023, sustainable finance comprised 57% of Helaba’s new business, highlighting its ongoing commitment to expanding its sustainable 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 Helaba, 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.helaba.com/media/docs/int/sustainability/prb-reporting-and-self-assessment_helaba2025.pdf

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