ACRA confirmed the ESG rating of Center-invest Bank at ESG-2 (AA+) with stable outlook, which corresponds to the highest assessment in the field of environment, social responsibility and management among Russian banks.
Center-invest Bank has approved and puts into practice policies, procedures and performance metrics in the area of managing key industry ESG risks, successfully localizes the best global practices, and has a large volume of green, adaptation and social projects in its loan portfolio financed by the bank.
The bank demonstrates a high level of integration of the environmental agenda into business processes: 95% of the factors under review are in line with global practices. The bank is one of the first in Russia that has introduced environmental due diligence for clients and projects, along with systematic monitoring of climate risks within its loan department. Center-invest Bank was the first in Russia to issue "green" bonds in the Sustainable Development Sector of the Moscow Exchange. The bank has developed an exclusive list of industries and a list of priority "green" projects that comply with the national taxonomy.
The Bank has developed several special "green" products, including "green" mortgages for individuals and legal entities, "green" deposits (all depositors’ funds are directed only to projects that contribute to achieving the goals of UN Sustainable Development and national project), and since 2004, it has been granting loans to energy efficiency projects.
In the field of social responsibility, the ACRA experts assessed the bank’s participation in government programs to increase financial awareness, availability of financial products for people (rural mortgages, mortgages for IT specialists, family mortgages), and also independent implementation of special financial products with preferential credit rates for socially vulnerable groups of citizens (preferential cards for students and pensioners, preferential loans for medical workers and for women engaged in entrepreneurial activities).
According to the Agency, Center-invest Bank pays special attention to the quality of such issues as corporate governance, personal data protection and information security, monitors trends in the field of digitalization of services, and controls business reputation of its managers and shareholders.
The Bank is building systematic work with stakeholders and the expert community in the field of sustainable development, maintaining interaction with GABV1 and UNEP FI2, and also has partnership relations with the Scientific and Educational Center of Southern Russia regarding the development of an ESG expert assessment center.
1 GABV — Global Alliance for Banking on Values
2 UNEP FI — United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative