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At the end of October, the European Commission announced more than €380 million in grants for more than 100 projects across Europe aimed at achieving the EU’s green goals, while underlining how much support still needs to come from national and local governments – and especially from the private sector. partners.
As European governments and policymakers increasingly look to the private sector to step up climate action and accelerate the green transition, Dutch multinational bank ING has responded to the call in dramatic fashion. On September 19, ING announced in its latest climate progress report that it would cut ties with customers who fail to meet their climate impact reduction targets from 2026 onwards. to stop financing new upstream oil projects after next year.
As the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations in the US banking sector has come under intense political scrutiny, amid a growing ‘woke capitalism’ backlash, ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk has put the company in the at the forefront of Europe’s more proactive approach in this area. room. From France’s BNP Paribas and Bulgaria’s Fibank to Italy’s UniCredit, the sector’s leading innovators are leading the way forward, driving investments in sustainability, socio-economic inclusion and cultural well-being to enhance their social contribution.
Encouraging sustainable transition
Anne-Sophie Castelnau, ING’s global head of sustainability, has responded to these surprising decisions clarified The company believes that while the sector is not “the white knight that will save the world”, banks have a key role to play in the green transition.
In addition to enhanced monitoring of customers’ climate progress – facilitated in particular by its internal ESG.X tool – and assessment of the most carbon-intensive sectors, ING also supports the green transition in practice. Last June, the company joined forces with the Dutch company Kroonenberg Group to donate more than 5,500 solar panels to the municipality of Amsterdam in honor of its 750th anniversary, which will generate more than 2,000 MW of clean electricity annually for public and communal facilities in the city.
In Bulgaria, the country’s largest independent bank, First Investment Bank (Fibank), has adopted similar green energy ambitions as part of its long-term sustainability strategy. Fibank is launching its internal transition in 2022 and is now meeting 100% of its electricity needs from renewable sources, allowing the company to reduce around 8,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions last year alone.
Tseko Minev and Ivaylo Mutafchiev, Fibank’s founders and majority owners, have inspired the bank’s growing green agenda, which has seen the bank move forward with a host of innovative initiatives, such as replacing nearly 100,000 plastic debit and credit cards with new cards made from recyclable material. by 2023 to help curb rising plastic pollution.
Recognizing the need to secure progress on long-term sustainability, Italian multinational UniCredit unveiled its ‘Skills for Transition’ program in July, which will provide strategic training to young people and businesses to build a resilient foundation for a greener future.
Making economies work for everyone
Fibank and ING share Unicredit’s focus on preparing the next generation and have put youth education and skills at the heart of their broader social impact agendas.
As part of its commitment to socio-economic inclusion, Fibank participated in the Children’s Financial Literacy Week last March, where more than 5,000 students in schools across Bulgaria learned the basics of digital banking and budgeting essential for leading a financially sustainable lifestyle . Meanwhile, ING Romania has significantly strengthened its youth engagement work as part of a €5.2 million investment program in 2023, launching a new partnership with Teach for Romania that will deploy financial health and resource management leadership programs in the coming years a network of ten schools. two years.
The European banking sector has also started taking innovative steps towards building a more accessible and inclusive economy for people with disabilities. In support of the intended legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – which was incidentally promoted by launching exclusive themed debit and credit cards in collaboration with VISA – Fibank is the first and only bank in Bulgaria to offer dedicated ATMs for people of short stature. As Fibank expands the number of these customized machines, it continues to expand its ATM network with new features to help people with low vision.
In a similar vein, last April Unicredit unveiled a bold partnership with Mastercard to upgrade its full range of debit, credit and prepaid cards with the Mastercard Touch Card and its innovative built-in accessibility features for the blind and partially sighted. Already available in Italy, UniCredit will gradually roll out 20 million of these new cards across the twelve countries where it operates over the course of 2024, to help create a more inclusive society.
Offering culture for everyone
Not content with planting the seeds of economic inclusion and equal access to the skills needed to thrive, Europe’s banks have emerged as key champions of culture, recognizing this intangible asset as a universal right and a crucial factor for well-being and social cohesion.
Through its ‘Dream Up’ programme, French banking giant BNP Paribas gives children from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to discover and participate in a wide range of artistic activities. Leveraging its international presence and the significant resources of the BNP Paribas Foundation, the company has delivered an extensive range of workshops and shows in music, visual arts and dance on four continents. Since its launch in 2015, ‘Dream Up’ has reached more than 50,000 children, with BNP Paribas introducing the fourth edition of its flagship cultural initiative in January.
In Bulgaria, Fibank has similarly strengthened its broad patronage of the arts with strong financial support for the social program of the Union of Bulgarian Actors, as well as by providing theater scholarships to promising young actors with low incomes. In addition, UniCredit’s partnership with Teatro San Carlo, Naples – Europe’s oldest opera house – offers a series of workshops and projects to help disadvantaged young people access their cultural heritage and employment in the industry.
As these leaders demonstrate, European banks are leading the way in integrating ESG and redefining industry standards, proving that sustainable finance is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic advantage. Going forward, their comprehensive efforts should serve as a blueprint for banks around the world, whose full strength will be needed to unlock the sector’s potential to fuel a more inclusive and resilient global economy. With climate change and pressures on inequality becoming increasingly urgent, the time for decisive action is now.