About this
Report
Chairman's
Foreword
Corporate
Management Report Appendices Governance
Consolidated Financial Company Financial
Statements Statements
increase of 19% on 2017. For the Netherlands as a whole,
Rabobank scanned 99% of our clients with an exposure of over
EUR 1 million. As of 2018, 24% of our Wholesale clients have
achieved the highest possible rating (A-level). By the end of 2018,
5% of our SME and mid-sized clients in the Netherlands achieved
this level. In 2019 we will continue to encourage more clients to
improve their sustainability performance. We will also keep
supporting sustainable frontrunners, by offering, for instance,
more advantageous terms for their financing. Please refer to
Appendix 3 for more details figures on the client photo for
Wholesale clients and clients of local Rabobanks.
To facilitate the transition to a more sustainable and circular
economy, we are increasing the scope and number of financial
solutions for clients we consider to be sustainable frontrunners.
For example, in 2018 we extended our Impact Loan for SMEs with
a fourth tranche of EUR 250 mil lion from the European Investment
Bank (starting in 2015, the first three tranches were
EUR 350 million in total). We also introduced deal coaches who
support clients and commercial colleagues in optimizing our
lending to circular businesses.
Likewise, we increased the number and total value of the
Sustainable and Green Revolving Credit Facilities (RCF), which we
mandated in 2018.These syndicated loans embed environmental
and social criteria in the credit arrangements. For example,
Rabobank has been appointed the Documentation Agent and
Sustainability Coordinator for the Sustainable RCF as the first
company in the Dutch construction sector that linked
sustainability performance to the terms of its banking credit
facility.
When clients are not able to comply with our sustainability
policies we initiate a client engagement process based on a set
of fixed criteria. In 2018, the central Sustainability Department
conducted such processes with 69 clients. The aim is to achieve
compliance within an ambitious but realistic time frame. Most
clients engaged in actions to ensure compliance with our
sustainability policies, a few clients were not able to comply, so
we terminated those relationships. See appendix 4 for more
information.
Dialogue with Government Authorities
At a policy level we are intensifying our dialogue on climate
change with key external stakeholders. Together with the Dutch
Banking Association (NVB), the European Association of
Cooperative banks (EACB) and the European Banking Federation
(EBF) we are closely following and actively engaging in the
debate in Brussels on the Sustainable Finance Action Plan
launched by the European Commission in March 2018. In the
reporting year we also held consultations with the European
Commission, the European Parliament, members of the Dutch
Parliament, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Dutch
Central Bank and the Dutch employers association VNO NCW. We
are also actively involved in the Task Force on Climate-Related
Financial Disclosures (TCFD)and the Platform Carbon Accounting
Financials (PCAF), in order to explore the possibilities for
developing a systematic measurement of the carbon footprint
of banks' balance sheets. As such, we are prepared and informed
in case of regulation changes regarding transparency
requirements for carbon footprints on banks' balance sheets.
Sustainability Program and Framework Update
Rabobank's sustainability program, Sustainably Successful
Together (SST), commits us to integrating sustainability into all
relevant policies, processes, products and services. A report
detailing our progress can be found here. We have translated the
ambitions outlined in SST into our Sustainable Policy Framework,
which sets our sustainability standards for our business and
financing relationships. The framework covers the
implementation ofthe precautionary principle (GRI 102-11). We
also do not offer products or services that are banned in certain
markets (GRI 102-2). In 2018, we updated the framework
completely.The framework now contains, for instance, a separate
and extensive Fluman Rights Policy, which includes a description
of Rabobank's commitment to ensure a mitigation of potential
human right risks as much as possible. These risks could be
present when engaging with our employees, our suppliers and
our customers. Therefore, this policy is also integrated in our
Client Photo scan. We respect and uphold international human
rights as described in the United Nations Declaration of Fluman
Rights and are guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles
on Business and Fluman Rights. Specific high-risk sectors are
being further assessed with other stakeholders in the Dutch
Banking Agreement. More details can be found in the Sustainably
Successful Progress Report.
F&A Supply Chains
In 2018, we continued to build on our strong partnership with
the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Building on our successes in
Chile (farmed salmon), Brazil (soy), India (sugarcane), the
Netherlands (dairy) and Indonesia (Palm oil), in 2018 we
started defining our new strategy for the coming years. Our
shared goal is to find and exploit opportunities to create
sustainable F&A supply chains in cooperation with ourclients.
Read more at WWF's website.
Annual Report 2018 - Management Report
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