Defining sustainable governance and strategy

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The bank has designed its organisational structure to address ESG challenges and thus support its long-term stability and growth.

Sustainable governance that progressively includes the ESG objectives in its operation

Sustainable development impacts every bank business line. The implementation of the sustainable development strategy is monitored by a cross-disciplinary committee made up of representatives from every bank department, thus guaranteeing cross-functional communication in this area and consistency overall. It is incumbent upon the bank as a whole to progressively integrate environmental and social considerations into our products and services, and into the operational processes that underpin them, so that we are ultimately guided by strong, consistent monitoring and governance.

Click here to read the bank’s management policies


Risk management from an ESG perspective

Sustainable development is bringing to light new types of risk such as to climate change or changes in client behaviour. Incorporating ESG considerations into risk management and adopting a responsible approach are essential to ensuring these risks are properly identified, assessed and managed.

Compliance with regulatory and transparency requirements

Legislation being introduced the European regulator requires greater transparency from banks about their impact on sustainable development in order to bring them into line with the 2015 Paris Agreement (COP 21). BIL is structuring itself around such requirements, including:

  • The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which governs the development of financial products
  • The European Union Taxonomy, which aims to list environmentally sustainable activities in a single frame of reference
  • The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will require various organisations to publish sustainability reports, thereby ensuring the full transparency of their initiatives.

UN PRB

In 2021, BIL signed the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (UN PRB). This is a unique framework for responsible banking developed through a partnership between banks across the world and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

This means that BIL is committed to implementing ambitious development strategies and placing sustainability at the heart of its activities, while remaining at the forefront of sustainable finance.

UN GLOBAL COMPACT

In 2021, BIL became a signatory to the UN Global Compact, which encourages companies to voluntarily adopt ten universal principles of sustainable development relating to human rights, labour, the environment and the fight against corruption.