13.03.2018
Helaba expands its sustainability criteria to include lending activities
Helaba has developed sustainability criteria for its lending business in order to further consolidate its corporate responsibility for the climate, the environment and society.
The bank has enshrined these sustainability criteria in its binding risk strategies to ensure reliability and transparency. In these strategies, Helaba rules out financing projects that cause any serious damage to the environment or society. These overarching principles are complemented by sector-specific guidelines and apply to industries with elevated levels of risk, such as power stations, mining, oil and gas exploration as well as the armaments industry.
„By expanding our risk strategies to cover specific sustainability criteria, we are refining our tried-and-tested risk policy while meeting our social responsibility as a credit institution.“
Thomas Groß
Vice-Chairman of Helaba’s Board of Managing Directors
The bank is gradually reducing its exposure in the fields of coal-fired power stations and power plant coal. At the same time, it is supporting the energy transition by targeting its lending activities at energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly technologies and renewable energy.
The overriding and group-wide requirements for lending activities are based on the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. The sustainability criteria and sector-specific guidelines have been published on Helaba’s Sustainability Portal.
Sustainability
Ecological and social responsibility is an integral component of our business strategy.