Chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor, Doctor of Economics Vasily Vysokov held a workshop for youth program participants at the FINOPOLIS 2021/2022 Forum of Innovative Financial Technologies, held from November 9 to 11 at Crocus Expo (Moscow).

The Bank of Russia changed the venue of the FINOPOLIS Forum of Innovative Financial Technologies twice due to the pandemic. Over the past two years, Center-invest Bank has not only developed but also introduced digital technologies for the implementation of ESG banking. Professor Vysokov shared the results of this work with the forum participants.

The impetus for promoting ESG banking and other social initiatives of bankers was the global financial crisis of 2008, which required the search for new models of banking business. Among the main alternatives were public, speculative, Islamic, and sustainable banking. The latter is distinguished by being not only responsible, but also creative. ESG is a version of sustainable banking focused on environmental, social and governance factors.

Digital transformation helped Center-Invest Bank build the bank’s ESG model and define the ESG indicators for the balance sheet, portfolios, and impact assessment. Using the ESG digital transformation experience, Center-Invest Bank created a model of sovereign ESG banking with the following competitive advantages:

— sustainability (takes into account financial, environmental, social and governance factors)

— comprehensiveness (covers all levels and management functions)

— focus on the real economy (more than 64% of assets are directed to achieving Sustainable Development Goals)

— innovativeness (more than 55 thousand loans worth 55.5 billion roubles)

— quick, flexible response to any challenges

Center-invest Bank developed an ESG rating for SME customers based on the experience gained. Nearly 2500 customers received a rating that can be used to lower the loan interest rate for the development of ESG business.