UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Principle 5 – Governance & Culture

In 2021, we signed the UN Principles of Responsible Banking. In this article, we provided an overview of all six principles and why we’re proud of our commitment.

We will implement our commitment to these Principles through effective governance and a culture of responsible banking.

At RBI, we believe in making sustainable decisions that positively impact our customers and the world around us. Our Board of Management takes the lead when it comes to ESG-related strategies, policies, and commitments. For us, leadership means to know about our duties and our impact, and therefore it’s important to us to set clear goals as well as KPIs. Our Board of Management ensures that each department within the organization integrates sustainability strategies into their performance management. We take transparency seriously, and that's why our Human Resources Committee carefully approves the ESG Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the members of the Management Board, which we publish in our annual remuneration report.

To ensure a holistic and effective approach, we introduced the Responsible Banking B-1 Steering Group. This diverse and cross-functional management team is led by co-heads from Corporate Finance and Group ESG & Sustainability Management, focusing on ESG matters. They work closely with the Board of Management, providing valuable recommendations, overseeing ESG Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and reviewing our ESG strategies and commitments based on the Principles for Responsible Banking. Through this, we encourage both top-down and bottom-up conversations, making sure everyone's voice is heard and find innovative solutions.

Specifically, our Sustainable Finance department, acting as the ESG Business Group Competence Center, along with Group ESG & Sustainability Management and the ESG Risk Management project, efficiently work in harmony to implement coordinated strategies and guidelines in their respective domains. To guarantee an open stakeholder dialogue, RBI´s Sustainability Council plays a vital role in guiding and advancing our sustainability agendas. With the advisory expertise of external ESG experts with different background and RBI´s ESG decision makers, they support the continuous improvement of our sustainability efforts.

At RBI, we believe in unity and coordination across all our subsidiaries. That's why we have ESG Ambassadors in each business area at Group level. Their role is to ensure that sustainability practices are consistent and aligned throughout the entire organization.

To stay ahead of the game, we provide ongoing training on ESG topics, climate, and environmental risks for our supervisory and management bodies. This ensures that all our team members are well-equipped to make informed decisions that contribute to our sustainability goals.

In order to meet the increasing knowledge requirements in the area ofsustainability — particularly in the area of sustainable finance — we introduced our online Sustainability Competence training course in 2020, which is now updated annually. In 2022, we expanded our training offer with targeted formats focused on ESG product- and sector-specific developments. Our Risk Management team regularly hosts Green Tuesday Broadcasts to keep our employees informed so that we make sure that everyone knows about their role in contributing to our sustainability goals. The Board of Management departments in our subsidiaries organized topic-specific Sustainability Summits to delve deeper into important subjects. Furthermore, we care deeply about human rights. In 2022, we conducted in-depth workshops on human rights due diligence as part of the Raiffeisen Sustainability Initiative in collaboration with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights.

We take managing positive and negative impacts seriously. Our internal policies and due diligence procedures ensure effective implementation and support for sustainable practices. Here are some key policies:

• Strategic Road Map/Vision/Mission: We evaluate focus initiatives quarterly to stay on track.
• Group-wide Code of Conduct: Our ethical guidelines can be found at www.rbinternational.com/en/who-we-are/governance-and-compliance/code-of-conduct.
• ESG & Sustainability Policy: Defines the management of sustainability & ESG topics.
• Operational Environmental Goals: Aligned with Paris Agreement goals.
• Policies on Thermal Coal, Nuclear Energy, Steel Strategy, Oil and Gas as well as Real Estate and Steel: Addressing sector-specific concerns.
• Human Rights Policy: Sets out our areas of impact and influence with regard to the protection of human rights.
• ESG Rule book: Uniform definitions for green and social transactions based on the EU taxonomy regulation.
• ESG Risk Framework: Providing guidance on important measures on the risk management side.

In order to make sure that we continuously improve our efforts, we also ensure constant monitoring and adaptations.