Case study: How OP Financial Group works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

OP Financial Group comprises 108 OP cooperative banks and their central cooperative, along with its subsidiaries and affiliated entities. These OP cooperative banks, and thus the entire OP Financial Group, which had nearly 13,000 employees at the end of 2022, are owned by over two million owner-customers. OP Financial Group’s operations are divided into three business segments: Retail Banking (serving personal and SME customers), Corporate Banking (serving corporate and institutional customers), and Insurance (serving insurance customers). OP Financial Group is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) and is, accordingly, working with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities.  Tweet This!

This case study is based on the 2022 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template by OP Financial Group, 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 3: Clients and Customers
      • 3.1 Client engagement
    • Principle 4: Stakeholders
      • 4.1 Stakeholder identification and consultation

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.

As Finland’s largest financial services group, OP Financial Group engages in open and ongoing dialogue with various stakeholders, underpinned by its long tradition of cooperative values and operating principles. One of the primary principles and objectives of stakeholder engagement through this dialogue is to identify areas for development in OP Financial Group’s corporate responsibility efforts. OP Financial Group maintains regular communication with its external stakeholders via a Stakeholder Forum, which includes representatives from labour market organizations, think tanks, political parties, universities, and non-governmental organizations.

How did OP Financial Group work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2022 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template OP Financial Group reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

OP Financial Group incorporates social responsibility and environmental considerations into its financing decisions and actively engages with its clients on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues. ESG analyses are conducted to provide an overview of the business operations of corporate customers, identify their business risks, and offer strategic support for business development.

OP Financial Group uses ESG analysis to assess the environmental, social, and governance risks of customer companies and funded projects based on industry-specific ESG factors. This analysis is part of assessing a company’s creditworthiness and its ability to mitigate critical ESG risks. Additionally, ESG analysis aids in recommending suitable sustainable corporate finance options for OP Financial Group’s customers. OP Financial Group measures the amount of sustainable financing within its sustainability programme, which amounted to 5.2 billion euros in 2022.

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), IEMA 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 OP Financial Group, 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.op.fi/documents/20556/33242441/UNEP+FI+PRB+Self+Assessment+Template+and+Limited+Assurance+Report+2023/e545e9a5-87f3-e38b-89fe-804da2202171

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