The four sustainable banking strategies

Yesterday, Asobancaria delivered its 2021 sustainability report at the Banking Convention, in which it highlights the main aspects on which the financial system worked and which are part of the strategic policy led by the Sustainability Department.

This exercise resulted in the prioritization of four relevant issues for the union and its member entities: financial education and inclusion, diversity, equity and inclusion, climate change and sustainability governance.

(Set three alerts to prevent credit deterioration).

The report consolidates the information of 33 financial entities and presents, under the Integrated Report guidelines, the performance of the sector in 11 material issues for the year 2021.

In the category of human capital, it is mentioned that 60% of the 161,629 direct and indirect employees are women and 40% are men.

Likewise, $52.9 billion were invested in the development and training of collaborators and 93% of financial entities stated that they have a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunities.

(‘Open banking’, beyond sharing data).

It was also established that all entities have reporting channels such as ethics lines for their employees and anti-corruption procedures, in addition, 22 financial entities reported monitoring the number of employees belonging to at least one diverse group.

The report says that by the year 2021, more than 4,000 trainings were held in which 338,000 attendees participated.

Entities had $885 billion in managed assets at the end of last year, with a gross portfolio of banking establishments that expanded 10.3% annual nominal, reaching $550 billion.

The consumer portfolio closed with a growth of 12.7%, while the housing portfolio grew 14.3% annual nominal.

(Immediate payment system, product in which Banrep works).

97% of financial entities in Colombia stated that they have a Customer Service System.

For their part, 70% of financial entities reported having strategies or programs aimed at promoting financial inclusion, in addition to 13 entities facilitating financial inclusion through digital financial technology in rural municipalities.

In the sustainability report, Asobancaria mentions that the budget allocated to digital security by financial entities was $370,000 million and all of them measure customer satisfaction.

Also, 52% customer satisfaction with banks in Colombia and 1.17 complaints were filed for every 10,000 operations.

Regarding digital security, 18 entities have implemented measures to reduce risk factors based on technologies such as machine learning, big data and Artificial Intelligence.

The total investment in digital transformation made by financial entities exceeded $360,000 million.

Last year, 83% of financial entities reported having had ESG (environmental, social and good corporate governance) commitments.

Likewise, in 2021, 94% of financial entities reported their acceptance or support for at least one standard related to sustainability.

In addition, 56% of financial entities have policies or guidelines for the creation of products with social benefits. A total investment of $14.7 billion was presented in financial education and the amount invested in social programs by financial entities exceeded $113.000 million.

A novel point mentioned in the Asobancaria sustainability report mentions that they presented more than $370,000 million in green purchases.
In payments to suppliers, remittances were made for close to $17 billion, of which 85% went to local suppliers.

Likewise, the balance of the portfolio of products for underserved populations reached $33 billion.

Likewise, 224 financial education intervention activities were carried out in which a total of 1,091,413 people benefited from the financial education programs.

In this sense, there was more than 602,000 beneficiaries of social investment programs, the report mentions.

There are 18 financial entities defined policies and/or strategies against climate change, 14 entities have identified climate risks in the short, medium and long term and 20 entities have policies or follow guidelines to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of credits.

62% of the financial entities established metrics and/or objectives related to climate change, in addition there are 15 entities that offer green financing lines aligned with the Green Taxonomy of Colombia.

In addition, 12 entities have an Environmental and Social Risk Analysis System (SARA).

So far five financial entities are already carbon neutral in their direct emissions. Hernando José Gómez, president of Asobancaria, said that by 2025 all banks expect to be neutral in their own emissions.

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