We invest in sustainable development and consistently design our actions to improve our impact on environmental sustainability, social responsibility and corporate governance.

Our ESG vision

We recognise the need to become a more sustainable bank at our core, to be resilient to future environmental and social shifts and to deliver enhanced social value. We strive to meet standards and conditions that ensure we operate as a responsible business, especially in terms of acting as a responsible employer, giving back to our communities and delivering long-term sustainable performance.

Through our strong governance framework, and the new systems and processes we build, we envisage being able to improve our impact. That is, to make a meaningful contribution to society, champion enterprise and help minimise our impact on climate change.

Our ESG vision aims to support long-term prosperity by:

 Financing sustainable development.

 

 Delivering value to our people, stakeholders and the society.

 

Creating positive economic, social and environmental impacts through all aspects and areas of our activities.

Our commitment

Sustainable development is key to prosperity. It requires both productive economic structures and a responsible attitude towards the natural environment and the society.

To this end we are committed to:

  • Become the leader in financing the transition to the green economy.
  • Offer financing solutions that foster growth and sustainable development.
  • Operate responsibly, always upholding the highest ethical values.
  • Harness technology and innovate, to enhance the experience of our customers and become more accessible.
  • Provide a work environment that supports the welfare and development of our people.
  • Minimise our environmental footprint by adopting and promoting environmentally friendly practices.
  • Give back to the society and the community we operate in.

2-pillar ESG Strategy

We have developed our ESG Strategy around 2 pillars: Operational Impact Strategy and Financed Impact Strategy.

Our Operational Impact Strategy focuses on 3 strategic axes:

  • Environmental impact (operational net zero, paperless banking, circular economy).
  • Employer impact (diversity and inclusion, wellbeing culture, innovative environment).
  • Social and business impact (sustainable procurement, socio-economic effect, transparency and ESG capacity).

The Financed Impact Strategy focuses on actions for financing and supporting customers in their transition efforts and the circular economy towards a more ESG friendly economic environment.

Our Zero Tolerance Commitments

Respecting human rights

We are committed to respecting and protecting human rights. To this end, we have issued our Human Rights Statement, outlining our principles and commitments. These include:

  • Encouraging our people to treat each other with dignity and respect.
  • Not tolerating discrimination, bullying, harassment or victimisation on any grounds.
  • Fostering an inclusive work environment where everyone is treated fairly and with respect, while rejecting all forms of discrimination.
  • Avoiding to unintentionally create or contribute to creating a negative impact on human rights that may affect our employees, suppliers, contractors, clients and other parties directly linked to our operations, products or services.
  • Applying pertinent processes, including monitoring through grievance mechanisms, aiming to identify, prevent and mitigate any impact on human rights, as well as processes that enable the remediation of any such adverse impact.

We invite our stakeholders to read our Human Rights Statement and support us in honouring our commitments.

Fostering diversity, equity and inclusion

Recognising the significance and the impact of our activities on social equity for employees, customers and society, we are committed to fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, integrating relevant principles throughout our everyday working practices, our governance model and related commitments. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy outlines our corporate values, principles and commitments that support a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment, where everyone can have the opportunity to flourish.

Preventing and combating harassment

We have introduced a framework for preventing, addressing and combating violence and harassment at work. It outlines our zero-tolerance approach for various types of violations, including verbal, physical, psychological, moral and sexual violence, insulting, degrading or disparaging behaviour, offensive or inappropriate comments, and sexually offensive behaviour.

Through our Policy against Violence and Harassment in Workplace, and the newly established respective Committee, we promote an inclusive and non-discriminatory work environment where we treat everybody with dignity and respect.

We encourage all employees and any other person working with us to raise any issues of concern, speak up and use all available external and internal reporting channels.

Promoting anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices

Our Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy clearly defines active and passive bribery, as well as potential cases leading to corruption.

Furthermore, our Code of Conduct and Ethics describes how we prevent instances of bribery and corruption and how we promote integrity within the business environment.

Reporting of Illegal or Unethical Conduct (Whistleblowing)

To ensure an independent mechanism for anonymous reporting of illegal or unethical conduct and the confidential treatment of all reports, we have established the Policy for Reporting Illegal or Unethical Conduct.

Sustainability Policy Framework

To redesign our strategy and to redefine sustainable development actions and goals, we have developed our Sustainability Policy Framework. 

This Policy Framework outlines our approach for:

  • Adhering to the applicable regulatory requirements and voluntary initiatives.
  • Adopting standards and guidelines. 

To this end, it enables our contemporary and continuously updated approach to sustainability, in line with international best practices.

Our approach

We closely cooperate with third-party international bodies to report on our performance and ratings. Our aim is to illustrate our progress against our commitments.  

Acknowledging the importance of sustainable development, we provide comprehensive and transparent information through our ESG reporting and our digital newsletter ESG Insight. We are gradually integrating ESG practices and aspects in our product and service offerings, operations, and client and employee engagement.

To effectively support our ESG strategy, we have developed a Green Bond Framework, through which we will be issuing Green Bonds solely to finance projects that bring environmental benefits and promote the transition to the green economy.

To further promote transparency, we have also developed our:

  • Sustainable Finance Framework – It covers a wide range of sustainable retail and wholesale lending products, outlining our approach for classifying sustainable lending solutions and defining which activities are eligible to access sustainable financing (green and social assets).
  • Sustainable Investment Framework – It outlines the classification process and approaches for selecting investments with sustainable features and monitoring the sustainable bond portfolio of our banking book.

Apart from our business activities, we also undertake social responsibility initiatives, responding to the needs of society. We actively participate in landmark projects that foster sustainable growth in Greece. 

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Management Committee

The ESG Management Committee is established by the Eurobank CEO.

Its role and responsibilities include providing strategic direction on ESG initiatives, reviewing the ESG strategy, and integrating the elements of the ESG strategy into Eurobank’s business model and operations.

Our CSR strategy and policy

Supporting social initiatives

We implement a multifaceted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy. Our strategy includes a series of sponsorships and donations to legal entities and individuals, as provided in the relevant Policy Statement.

We update our strategy from time to time, driven by the needs of society, but also based on special conditions or periods of crisis that may arise.

Our strategy is based on 5 pillars and multiple social initiatives. Each one falls within one or more of the interconnected pillars:

Assessing and approving requests

Our CSR policy aims to create a functional framework to implement our strategy. This includes laying down the key principles, roles and responsibilities for managing requests for sponsorships and donations across the Group. Our CSR policy has been approved by the Group Executive Board and Board of Directors.

The requests are assessed and approved based on the 4-eyes principle at General Division, General Manager and Communication Committee level, depending on the amounts and the operational risk parameters. 

The main assessment criteria include:

  • Understanding the aim of the sponsorship or donation, and the extent to which it aligns with our CSR strategy.
  • Complying with the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism legal and regulatory framework.
  • Ensuring there are adequate funds available for CSR actions.

Note that political parties and coalitions are not entitled to sponsorships or donations.

Going forward

We set and refine our targets, aiming to better understand and monitor our impact over the years. Our plan is to establish comprehensive management mechanisms, KPIs and milestones to better implement and monitor our targets.

Aligning our activities with the Paris Agreement on climate change, the EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the UN SDGs will be a key aspect of setting such targets.

In this context, we aim to:

  • Launch awareness initiatives for our clients, promoting sustainable activities.
  • Enhance existing and introduce new product offerings that promote sustainable development.
  • Provide training for our employees to integrate ESG in day-to-day operations, client engagement and product offerings.
  • Enhance existing and introduce new policies on client, environmental and social risk management, supplier evaluation, and sustainable financing and products.
   
See also