Case study: How the BPER Group 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.

The BPER Group shapes its strategies based on the needs and expectations of its stakeholders. To achieve this, it conducts a structured engagement process aimed at identifying their needs, understanding their expectations regarding the Group’s activities, and anticipating potential risks—transforming them into opportunities. As part of the double materiality analysis conducted in 2025, an impact assessment was undertaken through engagement with key internal and external stakeholders. Specifically, the following engagement activities were carried out:

• Interviews with shareholders;
• A multi-stakeholder forum involving representatives from customers, the financial market, local communities and territories, suppliers, and public administrations;
• An employee survey.

The Bank’s dedication to collaborating with socially committed organizations is reflected in numerous partnerships with institutions and associations, including: Global Compact, the Italian Banking Association working groups (ABI), the CSR Association, the Foundation for Financial Education and Savings (FEduF), Sodalitas Foundation, the Forum for Sustainable Finance, Impronta Etica, the Italian Foundation for Business Reporting (O.I.B.R.), Sustainability Makers, Valore D, and the Women’s Network against Violence (D.i.Re).

In addition to the aforementioned engagement activities, the BPER Group has launched additional initiatives to enhance stakeholder engagement. These include the Group’s participation in the Sustainable Network of Borsa Italiana, an initiative aimed at creating an integrated ecosystem to promote sustainable finance within the Italian capital market. The Network facilitates dialogue and collaboration among financial institutions, issuers, and advisors, encouraging the exchange of expertise, best practices, and innovative ESG solutions—ultimately supporting the sustainable growth of the real economy through advanced tools and strategies.

These efforts are further supported by training and information-sharing sessions on sustainability disclosures, organized in partnership with various trade associations to assist SMEs operating within the bank’s geographical areas.

Since 2022, the Group has also piloted a project to administer ESG questionnaires to gather data on individual companies. The initiative continued into 2024, involving a selected group of larger companies. In 2025, activities were expanded further by increasing the number of companies participating in the questionnaire and by establishing a structured engagement process that involves direct participation from the Commercial Network.

In 2025, the Group continued its dedication to enhancing employee engagement and fostering a better working environment, building on the insights gained from the “People Survey 2024.” Conducted the previous year across the entire corporate population, the survey assessed employee engagement levels within the Group. Some of the questions contributing to the overall score also addressed eNPS and job satisfaction. The results of the survey played a crucial role in guiding the development of subsequent action plans.

Drawing on the insights from these findings, several action plans were designed and implemented in 2025, both at the Group level—guided by Top Management—and at the operational level through bottom-up initiatives developed with the active involvement and responsiveness of first-line managers. These action plans are aligned with the timeframe of the 2024–2027 Business Plan “B: Dynamic | Full Value 2027.”

How does the BPER Group promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees?

In its 2025 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement the BPER Group reports that it took the following actions to promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees:

The BPER Group actively promotes a responsible banking culture through various initiatives, including:

• the assessment and development of human resources’ skills;
• training programs designed to reinforce and deepen the risk culture within the Group, covering topics such as privacy, cybersecurity, anti-corruption, compliance, Model 231, and the Code of Ethics.

Additionally, a new course titled “Sustainability and ESG Management at BPER” was made available to all BPER Banca employees, aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of these subjects and highlighting the strategic importance of sustainability in the banking sector.

For ESG Managers specifically, an annual training cycle is scheduled. In 2025, three webinars were organized focusing on the relevant regulatory framework, market best practices, and upcoming ESG-related challenges. The goal was to promote knowledge sharing and to strengthen the integration of ESG factors into corporate processes.

Furthermore, targeted ESG training programs were implemented for over 1,000 employees involved in the origination and approval of credit exposures within the Corporate Centres and credit functions across the BPER Group during 2024–2025. Dedicated sessions were also arranged for the Internal Audit Function to support their engagement in ESG-related activities.

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 the BPER 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://group.bper.it/documents/d/bper-istituzionale/2025-responsible-banking-progress-statement-inglese

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