Sustainable
Banking

Sustainable behaviour
for the banking sector

Sustainability is essential in the future

Sustainability has become an indispensable part of the banking industry. Legislators and regulators are implementing numerous initiatives that pose new challenges for financial institutions. At the same time, customers are increasingly concerned that their financial decisions are sustainable, environmentally friendly and climate-friendly.

To ensure long-term success and overcome regulatory hurdles, institutions must align their business activities with sustainability goals early on and initiate a transformation process.

Here you will find answers on how to optimally implement a sustainable future in the financial industry.

Do you have questions?

Michael Hilbert
Head of Business Unit Banking

 
Sustainable Banking Studie 2022

Sustainable Banking Study

The role of banks in the transformation of society towards
more sustainability - Where are banks positioned in 2022? 

The study aims to highlight the attitude of banks towards sustainable financing, both currently and in the future. We provide a comprehensive overview of the current regulatory measures in the European and German banking sector and compare the progress in implementing sustainability goals in the banking industry with the previous year's survey. In addition, the study includes interviews with respected representatives of banks, associations and the German BaFin.

The financial sector as key to sustainable transformation

The EU is sending clear signals for more sustainable growth and expects companies to act sustainably with regard to environmental, labour and social concerns. Green bonds and other sustainable financial investments as well as the expansion of the CSR Directive are just some of the measures with which politicians and legislators are paving the way for a sustainable transformation of the economy. The financial sector has a key role to play in this. Companies should act now to achieve the sustainability goals and meet the expectations of policymakers.

Sustainable Finance Action Plan of EU

EU Sustainable Growth Financing Action Plan: What's behind it? 

The EU Commission published the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth in 2018. The aim: to redirect capital flows towards sustainable investments, to manage financial risks from climate change and social problems, and to promote transparency and long-termism in financial and economic activity.

The Action Plan includes four adaptation efforts:

  • an EU classification system,
  • the concretisation of investor obligations,
  • two new categories for benchmarks and
  • the integration of sustainability aspects into financial advice.

The EU Commission has issued the Sustainable Finance Action Plan in the form of binding rules.

CSR Directive (EU)
EU Taxonomy
ESG disclosure

European regulation places a strong focus on the disclosure of information on sustainability.

An important regulation in this context is the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which was adopted on 27 November 2019 and obliges financial market participants and financial advisors to disclose more data on sustainability from 10 March 2021. The Joint Regulatory Technical Standards on ESG disclosure standards for financial market participants of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) concretise the disclosure obligations under the SFDR.

On 1 March 2021, the EBA (European Banking Authority) published its guidelines on the disclosure of environmental, social and governance risks (ESG risks) in accordance with Art. 449a in conjunction with 434a of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR II) for consultation. These are to be applicable from 28.06.2022 and ensure transparent disclosure of sustainability risks of banks and their handling of these risks. Disclosure according to Pillar 3 is to take place every six months.

Regulatory initiatives on sustainability in risk management

We are happy to support you

For institutions, sustainability touches many areas such as business and risk strategy, risk management, internal governance, sales strategy and disclosure of information outside the annual report.

Our team can provide technical support and IT solutions in all these areas to ensure that your organisation meets the requirements related to sustainability.

Credit processes

Credit processes

  • Dealing with sustainability risks at the borrower
  • Design of a sustainability assessment
  • Training offers
  • Carrying out planning calculations and scenarios
  • Development of assessment software
  • Connection to databases of our technical partners

Reporting & Disclosure

Reporting & Disclosure

  • Preparation of sustainability reports
  • Optimisation of processes for the creation of ESG reports
  • Generator for the preparation and automation of CSR reports 
  • Ensure seamless reporting to regulators
  • Gap analysis of your database to meet regulatory requirements 
  • Overview of relevant EU regulations and necessary external data sources 
  • Training services 
  • Merging your data with external data sources
  • Calculation tool for data delivery to supervisors 

Collateral assessment

Collateral assessment

  • Sustainable valuation of real estate through life cycle assessment as a quick valuation, detailed valuation or on real estate portfolios
  • Transformation of ecological variables into economic values (present values/final values)
  • Planning calculations, scenarios and risk assessments
  • Reporting and documentation
  • Training offers
  • Implementation of planning calculations and scenarios
  • Development of a valuation module
  • Connection to databases of our technical partners

Outsourcing management

Outsourcing management

  • Alignment of the outsourcing policy
  • Alignment of outsourcing contracts
  • Modification of the monitoring /KPI to ESG criteria

Risk management

Risk management

  • Integration of transitory and physical risks into the existing risk map
  • Scenario analyses, transition scenarios and impact scenarios
  • Design of sustainability or climate stress tests
  • Training offers
  • Implementation of planning calculations and scenarios
  • Joint definition and development of an ESG assessment and management tool
  • Automation in the digitalisation or analogue data sources/documents
  • Integration into existing applications
  • Application of THINC to derive and measure ESG risks

Compliance & internal audit

Compliance & internal audit

  • Training of the compliance function and internal audit with regard to ESG requirements.
  • Regular training of a bank's employees
  • Monitoring

Insights into the Sustainable Banking Study

Podcasts

Our experts from msg, Prof. Dr Manuela Ender and Prof. Dr Konrad Wimmer, were guests of Bank-Verlag and talk exclusively about the results of our current Sustainable Banking study in the podcast 'durch die bank' and give their assessment of this topic.

Listen in! (German)

Webcast series

The webcast series of banking.vision offers you know-how on the current trends and challenges around the topic of sustainable banking. All sessions were recorded and are made available here. To watch the videos, you need to log in or register as a user.

Take a look at the series!

Do you want more information? We are happy to help you!

Contact us!

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Michael Hilbert
Head of Business Unit Banking