Banks play a pivotal role in steering our economy towards greater sustainability, and we acknowledge this responsibility. In this context, we present an overview of our strategies, guidelines, and processes. We ensure that all AG employees are acquainted with and incorporate our strategies, guidelines, and processes through the annual mandatory training.
Sustainability is an integral part of our identity. It is the basis of our actions. It will continue to be a key driver of our business model. Our strategy update, Corporate Concept 10, builds on this. The corporate concept is supplemented by sub-strategies. These include the sustainability strategy and the diversity strategy.
The sustainability strategy describes how we understand sustainability at DKB and summarizes our medium and long-term strategic goals, measures and fields of action for the future.
To promote and further develop diversity within DKB, we have developed a group-wide diversity strategy for DKB and established the position of Chief of Diversity.
The investment and financing principles include our positive concept and the exclusion criteria for granting loans.
The sustainability guideline applies to the entire Depot A of DKB AG. Our Depot A consists of the liquidity portfolio on the one hand and a proprietary portfolio of exclusively sustainable DKB mutual funds on the other.
Corporate Governance Principles summarize the regulations on corporate management and monitoring that apply to DKB on the grounds of binding or self-imposed requirements.
The Code of Conduct sets out principles for all of our daily actions and DKB's ethical and moral perspective on business activities.
This sustainability agreement describes DKB's principles and requirements for our contractors in the procurement of products and for external service providers in the provision of services.
By signing this voluntary pledge, we are committing ourselves as a sustainable employer to upholding and promoting equal opportunities for all employees.
Our ESG frameworks form the overarching technical framework for determining which financing options and products we consider as sustainable. Market standards and regulatory frameworks are taken into account.
In our Sustainable Lending Framework, we transparently demonstrate how we distinguish financing from sustainable financing in practice. The sustainability rating agency ISS ESG has conducted a review of the Sustainable Lending Framework.
The practical implementation of our Green Bond Framework is based on the standards formulated by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) - the Green Bond Principles.
The practical implementation of our Social Bond Framework is based on the standards formulated by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) - the Social Bond Principles.
Along with the sustainability report, DKB publishes the following reports with ESG references.
In our annual sustainability report, we reflect on our sustainability strategy and performance.
In our environmental statement, we have defined individual measures and targets for the areas of electricity, heat and water consumption, management system, CO2 emissions, waste, procurement of office materials and paper, employees, biodiversity and business trips.
The annual report covers the combined management report of the DKB Group and DKB AG for the 2023 financial year.
The remuneration report summarizes the remuneration systems valid for the 2021 financial year for all employees and in particular for employees whose activities have a significant influence on the overall risk profile of DKB AG or the DKB Group (risk takers), as well as the remuneration system of the members of the Board of Management.
In the Disclosure Report, we disclose the qualitative and quantitative information required annually in accordance with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR).
The declaration on the Disclosure Regulation 2019/2088 can be accessed here.
We issue Green and Social Bonds. Detailed information can be found here. The Impact & Allocation Report measures the sustainable impact of projects refinanced with the help of our Green and Social Bonds.
We offer the following sustainable products for our private customers:
With the DKB Sustainability Fund Climate Protection, the portfolio's CO2 emissions are monitored on an ongoing basis.
The DKB Sustainability Fund SDG focuses on the ecological and social impact of the portfolio.
The DKB Sustainability Fund European Green Deal focuses on companies with a high ESG quality.
Customers who build, buy or modernize a building with an energy efficiency class A or A+ receive an attractive interest rate discount of 0.20 percentage points for the period of the first fixed borrowing rate.
DKB-Crowd enables private customers to invest in attractive, high-yield projects and preferably regional companies.
With DKB Bürgersparen, you involve local citizens in a regional project via a savings product.
We regularly have external agencies review our performance and progress in sustainability. This way, we identify potential for improving the sustainable bank. The rating agencies we select assess us using comprehensive and recognized methods.
ISS ESG assesses the sustainability performance of a company based on around 100 industry-specific criteria. In 2022, DKB received a B- rating from ISS ESG for the eighth time in a row, the highest grade awarded by the rating agency from over 270 banks in the "Financials/Public & Regional Banks" sector worldwide. As in the previous year, this corresponds to Prime Status, Decile Rank 1 and an industry leader classification.
Based on a robust materiality framework, Sustainalytics' ESG risk ratings provide a quantitative and absolute measure of unmanaged ESG risks. Sustainalytics assesses the overall risk for DKB as medium. This depends on the sub-sector. DKB has an overall low risk, as material ESG issues are addressed and thus strong ESG risk management is in place. DKB is among the top 11 % in the peer group of 440 banks.
Sustainable Fitch's assessment of ESG factors is based on an analysis of actions, results, impacts and activities, in addition to the general principles and commitments. DKB received a score of 2 in the Corporate Assessment category, a score of 1 for the Green Bond Framework and a score of 2 for the Social Bond Framework on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the best score.
DKB is a member of over 200 associations and federations. In addition to the specific industry associations, DKB is also a member of the relevant trade associations for the customer groups and segments. As part of its membership, the topic of sustainability is further developed and promoted together with other stakeholders. The following initiatives and memberships, among others, have a strong ESG focus:
DKB AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayerische Landesbank. The standards, guidelines and policies listed here apply to all corporate units of BayernLB and therefore also to DKB AG as a sub-group.
The information in BayernLB's combined management report relates to the BayernLB Group as a whole.
The guiding principles for transformation are a transparent framework for BayernLB and its subsidiaries in which we bundle, update and publish our stance on important challenges of our time, our existing self-image and values, general ethical, environmental and social standards and policies on sensitive topics and sectors.
The BayernLB sustainability and environmental policy applies to its subsidiaries, including DKB AG as a subgroup.