UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Principle 3 – Clients & Customers

Since 2021, we are internationally committed to the Principles for Responsible Banking. In our previous article, we shared some insights about the six principles and why we are proud to have officially signed them. 

This time, we are going to dive deeper into Principle 3: Clients & Customers 

We will work responsibly with our clients and our customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable economic activities that create shared prosperity for current and future generations. 

We, at RBI, follow a code of conduct that forms the foundation for our corporate culture and the guidelines, which are based on our values, and is followed by all employees. This code of conduct guides us in treating our employees, customers and business partners. Furthermore, we strive to not only deliver high-quality banking services, but are also committed to sustainable corporate governance and social and environmental responsibility. Our goal is to provide best-in-class ESG Advisory for all customers while ensuring a high standard of quality. 

We prioritize sustainable financing to benefit our customers and society in a variety of activities that meet sustainable financing standards. Our definition of sustainable financing entails having a positive long-term impact on the environment and climate and on societal and social aspects in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As of end of December 2022, our total volume of sustainable financing (excluding COVID-19 and retail financing) for corporate and institutional customers at RBI AG and the subsidiary banks in CEE reached around€8.2 billion, with €6.5 billion utilized by customers and an unutilized line of sustainable financing of €1.7 billion.

To ensure the gradual integration of ESG risks and negative impact avoidance into the entire financing process, we have implemented corresponding processes and plans, which will be implemented throughout the whole group.Furthermore, we established a process for avoiding greenwashing and rolled out a Group ESG Rule Book as a binding policy throughout the organization. This rule book sets out uniform Group-wide definitions of sustainable customers and for green, social and ESG-linked finance. The classification of transactions is based on ESG standards and on the EU Taxonomy. 

We already offer ESG Rating-linked Financing, ESG KPI-linked Financing, EU Taxonomy-linked Financing, Green Guarantees, ESG-bound Derivates, Sustainable Bonds, “Schuldschein” Loans and focus our efforts on further developing a broad but targeted product portfolio for our customers. 

The experts at RBI also help our clients to figure out whether a project e.g. is suitable with ESG standards and regulations as e.g. the EU Taxonomy and provide competent analysis as well as assessments. The team acts as an expert advisor in structuring new products and services, as well as adapting existing products to meet the specific ESG needs.

As an essential component of future business development, we, at RBI, prioritize and foster ESG expertise to increase awareness of sustainable change and be a trustful ESG partner for our clients.RBI offers in-house training on sustainable financing and organizes several training courses. We created an in-house ESG academy with e-learning modules for all employees within RBI Group. Data transparency is crucial, and we foster cooperation and leverage synergies for sustainable instruments and concepts. In retail business, we established a Sustainability Strategy Unit as well as a network of Retail ESG Ambassadors for knowledge sharing and alignment.

Customer satisfaction is a top priority for us, which is measured regularly in both, retail and corporate customer business. The NPS (net promoter score) is used to measure the customer satisfaction and has been above the market average in most markets. As we aim to be the “most recommended financial institution” in all our markets and segments by 2025, customer experience management has been established in all subsidiary banks in CEE to improve the customer experience and anchor customer satisfaction in our strategy. Regular measurements of customer satisfaction and experience help us continuously improve our products and services.