Friday, March 29

CaixaBank launches a new ESG advisory service


CaixaBank has launched a new ESG advisory service (environmental, social and governance) to help its corporate and institutional clients analyze and establish their strategy and sustainable positioning. With this new advisory service, CaixaBank intends to promote the transition of its clients towards carbon neutrality and accompany them in their processes of adaptation, understanding and definition of sustainable objectives, in the short and long term.

From the Paris Agreement in 2015, there have been a series of regulatory milestones and a push for sustainability, which focuses on the necessary global decarbonization to guarantee sustainability at all levels. This paradigm shift to be able to move towards a carbon-free economy is an ambitious and complex objective.

CaixaBank, as a financial institution, assumes its role as a channel for financing and promotes investment with the aim of promoting transition of its clients towards carbon neutrality. Through its Structured Finance – Sustainable Finance area of ​​CIB (Institutional and Corporate Banking), it facilitates an ESG advisory process for its clients to help them develop their comprehensive sustainability plan and adapt their financing to the specific needs of their decarbonization path. .

Three custom diagnostic areas

It is a differentiating service, designed under its own methodology based on the Guide of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and UNEP-FI, which provides added value to its clients since it allows them to know their level of ESG maturity, incorporates proposals for advice and offers a consultative collaboration agreement to support the improvement of its sustainability performance. This service analyzes three areas of performance by the client, where a personalized diagnosis is offered, comparing its position and projection with its sector, and an action plan with specific proposals is proposed.

In the first area, it is analyzed in a personalized way for each client the sustainability strategy, its commitments and the level of alignment with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Medium- and long-term objectives that must be measurable and aligned with the company’s corporate strategy are also defined.

In the second, its visibility in the market is analyzed through the ESG agencies and ratings in which it is present or through which it could gain visibility. Different structures, metrics and monitoring and impact tools are proposed. CaixaBank offers active management with agencies, ratings and ESG indices, through active dialogue with market leaders to improve the positioning and sustainable recognition of each client.

In the last phase, it is evaluated if the company has incorporated ESG criteria in its financing decisions and the option of defining a sustainable financing framework that integrates these ESG criteria into the financing policy and facilitates decision-making and access to capital is valued. In addition, potential financing products that can be incorporated into said financing framework are validated.

The type of sustainable financing can be Green, if it has a direct positive environmental impact; Social, if the use of the funds affects social variables such as health or education; o ESG-Linked, if they are financing that encourages the achievement of sustainable objectives by the company.

The duration of this entire process is approximately between nine and eleven months, and currently the entity has already formalized several agreements with leading companies in their sectors, with whom this consultative relationship has begun under an environment of absolute confidentiality and with a specific team. dedicated to each client.

Success story for the University of Cambridge and the United Nations

Recently, the Institute for Sustainability Leadership of the University of Cambridge in conjunction with the United Nations, have published a report on “Leadership strategies for commitment to customers”, in which they have selected CaixaBank and three other international financial entities, to highlight the success of this methodology. advice and support to clients in ESG matters.

At CaixaBank, this service is conceived as a “partnership estratégico” with corporate and institutional clients, which allows increasing strategic dialogue and strengthening relationships and long-term commitment. It represents a further step in the commitment to provide added value to customers in a constantly evolving global situation, where sustainability is becoming the center of the strategy of companies and institutions, as a key factor in investment decisions and as a one of the foci of development at a regulatory and market projection level.



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