Case study: How Intesa Sanpaolo 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.

Intesa Sanpaolo actively engages with its employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, the environment, and the community through a variety of listening methods to understand and monitor their needs and expectations related to priority issues. During these engagement activities, the Group not only seeks specific feedback from all stakeholders concerning identified impact areas but also highlights the evolving regulatory landscape and its implications for the Group’s operations.

Stakeholder engagement is a critical component of the materiality analysis process, where the involvement of the Group’s stakeholders is essential. This process helps in identifying and understanding the needs, viewpoints, and priorities of those invested in the Group’s activities, risks, and opportunities. Thus, Intesa Sanpaolo places a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement to ensure their perspectives are taken into account in strategic decision-making.

In the context of materiality analysis, stakeholder engagement involves the active participation of the Group’s stakeholders. The Stakeholder Map illustrates the relationships within the Group, which Intesa Sanpaolo regularly taps into in order to identify and track their needs and viewpoints regarding areas of impact, risks, and opportunities they prioritize.

To effectively map impacts, risks, and opportunities, the Group has established a process for engaging its key stakeholders. Drawing on insights from context analysis, the Group’s operations, business activities, and divisions, it has identified its stakeholders. Specifically, during the Materiality Assessment process, guided by EFRAG recommendations, the Group applied the following approach to stakeholder engagement:

• Involvement of internal teams dedicated to stakeholder engagement in mapping and evaluating the relevance of impacts, risks, and opportunities, ensuring continuous dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
• Direct engagement of targeted stakeholders via dedicated workshops, interviews, and surveys.

Furthermore, Intesa Sanpaolo has numerous initiatives to engage with stakeholders who possess technical expertise, aiding the Group in its ongoing implementation of key principles. One notable example is its long-term partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading international advocate for the systemic transition to a Circular Economy, of which Intesa Sanpaolo is a Strategic Partner.

How did Intesa Sanpaolo work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2024 Responsible Banking Progress Statement Intesa Sanpaolo reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

Intesa Sanpaolo operates with a strong commitment to integrity, guided by the principles of professionalism, diligence, honesty, fairness, and responsibility. Intesa Sanpaolo seeks to establish trust-based relationships with its clients by meeting their expectations through high-quality products and services, while emphasizing transparency, inclusivity, and accessibility. The Group enhances the clarity of contracts, ensures effective communication, and promotes financial inclusion, providing support to vulnerable clients and empowering entrepreneurship to foster economic and social advancement.

Climate Change
Intesa Sanpaolo is proactive in collaborating with its clients to encourage responsible and sustainable economic practices. The Group offers tailored financial products, such as green loans, sustainability-linked loans, and sustainable bonds, which promote low-impact investments and aid in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Additionally, it has developed solutions aimed at supporting the circular economy and projects focused on decarbonization.

Through tailored ESG advisory services, the bank assists clients in defining and implementing sustainable transition plans, significantly contributing to decarbonization objectives. The emission reduction targets for various sectors, which are part of the transition plan and developed collaboratively with clients, encompass all key sectors identified by the Group (for more details, please refer to the relevant sections of the 2024 Climate Report). Intesa Sanpaolo incorporates the European Taxonomy into its credit evaluation processes and offers digital solutions to monitor compliance with sustainability goals. These initiatives encourage clients to pursue sustainable transition pathways and adopt responsible business practices, promoting the integration of ESG criteria into their long-term strategies.

Resource Use and Circular Economy
To effectively support businesses in the circular transition process, the Group is committed to facilitating the shift towards a circular economy. This initiative encourages businesses to implement innovative circular solutions, such as extending product lifecycles, utilizing renewable resources, enhancing resource efficiency, and creating recyclable or reusable products. It also supports technologies such as IoT, AI, and precision agriculture to foster sustainable practices.

Intesa Sanpaolo promotes the circular economy through initiatives like the Circular Economy Lab (CE Lab), established in Milan in partnership with Fondazione Cariplo. The CE Lab offers non-financial innovation support to help businesses transition to circular models and encourages sustainable economic growth. In 2024, UNEP FI acknowledged the CE Lab as a case study in its guidelines for responsible banking, underscoring the Group’s commitment to client engagement, advocacy, and partnerships in promoting circular business models.

Consumers and End-users
When it comes to social impact through its business activities, Intesa Sanpaolo strives to provide targeted credit options to enhance financial inclusion, thereby creating entrepreneurial and job opportunities for individuals in particularly challenging situations by streamlining access to credit. It also supports local initiatives that benefit communities and the environment, including partnerships with Third Sector organizations. Furthermore, the Group has set goals to assist communities by addressing their social needs, tackling inequalities, and promoting social, educational, and cultural inclusion. Intesa Sanpaolo’s efforts to support financial inclusion through social lending focus on businesses and vulnerable groups that may have limited access to conventional financial services. This includes university students, working mothers, families affected by natural disasters, individuals or small businesses in difficulty, and those at risk of usury. To assist these groups, Intesa Sanpaolo offers a comprehensive range of financial products and services that are continually updated, informed by market research and customer feedback, and customized to meet their specific needs and preferences. A special category of clients, Third Sector organizations, receives tailored offerings through a dedicated programme based on a crowdfunding platform. These credit services for disadvantaged clients are also extended by the Group’s Foreign Banks through localized initiatives.

For more detailed information on how the bank works responsibly with clients and customers, please refer to the relevant sections of the Group’s Consolidated Sustainability Statement.

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 Intesa Sanpaolo, 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://group.intesasanpaolo.com/content/dam/portalgroup/repository-documenti/sostenibiltà/rbps_report/2024_RBPS_Report.pdf

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