“The World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility in 2019”

The UK magazine Euromoney has awarded us the 2019 prize of “World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility”. This recognition is the result of the daily commitment of the Group’s 200,000 employees in all businesses and regions around the world.

We support the transition towards a more sustainable future

The BNP Paribas Group has been a longstanding and engaged corporate citizen and has adopted corporate and social responsibility (CSR) policies since 2011. The Group stepped up its efforts following the 2015 Climate Change conference in Paris and in 2017 we created a Company Engagement department to make BNP Paribas a true leader in CSR and sustainable finance. Since then, all our business lines have put in place measures that increase the positive impact of their activities on the environment and on social inclusion, with a particular emphasis on young people, entrepreneurship, and local communities.

Our role in financing the economy means we have an important responsibility at a time when the world around us is changing more quickly than ever. It is incumbent on us to help our clients, whether individuals, entrepreneurs or large companies, to meet their own goals regarding the positive social and environmental impact of their activities. How can we do this? By financing renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and social innovation, or by enabling clients to manage their savings and investments in ways that have a positive impact on society. The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals constitute a valuable framework that can help us direct our resources to projects that are the most sustainable.

Our clients’ demands in sustainable finance are enabling us to come up with new solutions. For example, we now offer large companies ‘sustainability-linked loans’, the principle of which is both very innovative and very simple: The closer a company gets to achieving its CSR-performance objectives, the more favourable our loan terms are. Danone, Deutsche B?rse and Solvay have already shown their confidence in this kind of financing and this trend is accelerating. Soon we aim to offer such loans to our SME clients. This is very good news, because I am convinced that the most socially-responsible companies will also be the most long-lasting.

We support diversity and inclusion

I have already had the opportunity to state on many occasions that economic growth can only be sustainable if it benefits everyone. Being a socially-responsible company means taking daily action that leads to a more inclusive society. For BNP Paribas, this means greater support for the social-solidarity economy and for microfinance—areas that we have supported for thirty years. We also provide support for young people in education, housing and employment, with the aim to promote equal opportunity for all and enable new talent to flourish and benefit society. And we work every day to advance gender equality, in our Group and beyond, by supporting actions around the world in areas such as training, access to credit, business creation and equal pay.

We want to measure our impact more and strengthen our participation in coalitions

How do we measure the impact of these actions today? This question is central for us and indeed for the wider financial community. We must be accountable for the commitments we make, and through our work with other major financial institutions we are helping to build new industry standards and indicators in the area of sustainable finance.

As we face the world’s environmental and social challenges, we are only one link in the chain. But we do not act alone. We are creating or joining coalitions that bring together diverse stakeholders, from companies, investors and NGOs to community groups and ordinary citizens. Seeking solutions together is key to delivering comprehensive solutions to the world’s challenges; it also fosters mutual trust and respect among stakeholders.