Our Approach to Sustainability
3 MIN READ
Being a major allocator of capital in the country, we play an important role in fostering sustainability by ensuring that we run our business responsibly, and that we support relationships that deliver positive contributions to society.
For us, sustainability means helping accelerate national development by providing the right financial solutions that empower individuals and businesses. When we design our solutions, we balance short-and long-term interests of our stakeholders and consider the economic, environmental, and social impact of our business.
As a domestic systemically important bank (D-SIB), we are strongly committed to mitigate the impact of environment and social (E&S) risks.
We are integrating sustainable finance in our risk management framework. We are listening to and learning from our internal and external stakeholders. We also make sure our sustainability agenda actually works as intended.
We are guided by our E&S Risk Appetite Statement (RAS)
We have low tolerance for E&S risks that adversely affect the business. We actively monitor current and emerging E&S risks across our lending functions, investment activities and other related bank operations, and we are committed to mitigating the negative impact of these risks in order to contribute positively to social development goals.
We accept that our lending and investment operations are exposed to E&S risks that may cut across principal material risks, including credit, operational, and strategic risks. We employ an Environment and Social Risk Management (ESRM) framework, as well as a three-lines-of-defense mechanism to manage these risks and to ensure adherence to our E&S risk appetite.
On the operational front, we have a low-risk appetite for risk events and significant breaches. We manage our operational risk through a dynamic Operational Risk Management framework and a sound Business Continuity plan (BCP).
We support counterparties and activities that add value to the economy: a) by aiding in the national goal of jobs creation, and b) via the production of goods and services that are needed and sustainable.
We seek to promote sustainable business practices by supporting customers who: a) earn from their businesses legitimately, b) choose legitimate counterparties, and c) manage their finances responsibly by practicing sound risk management.
The Board of Directors is ultimately accountable for the Bank’s direction, including its sustainability agenda.
The Executive Committee sets the overall direction, performs oversight on our framework and strategy, and makes sure we comply with regulations.
Our President, meanwhile, makes our framework happen through our Sustainability Department, which is tasked to embed it across our organization. Supporting the Senior Management is our Sustainability Technical Working Group.