On September 22, 2019, the United Nations Environment Programme officially launched the Principles for Responsible Banking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York,, setting a global benchmark for responsible banking. Such leading global sustainability banks, including IB, Citibank and Standard Chartered, became the first signatories of the Principles for Responsible Banking.
After being one of the first signatories, IB is committed to ensuring that its business strategies are aligned with The Paris Agreement (on Climate Change), the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the demands of individuals and social goals of each country, and to working tirelessly towards this end.
The Principles for Responsible Banking are said to provide the banking industry with a holistic framework of behaviors that integrates sustainability objectives into business conduct, helping banks to create values through society and shareholders, and to build the trust with investors, customers, employees and the society. Signing the Principles for Responsible Banking is in line with IB’s long-term corporate governance philosophy of sustainable development and its view of CSR practices.
Tao Yiping, the IB President said: “IB insists on ‘integrating righteousness with profitability’ and has always pursued the integration of corporate social responsibility with business practices. As one of the first signatories to the Principles for Responsible Banking, IB will continue to contribute to the realization of social and economic sustainable development while realizing its own sustainable development”.
It is understood that, as the first EPFI in China, IB has made a three-stage leap in its corporate governance philosophy over the past 31 years since its establishment, from giving priority to the shareholders’ interests to taking into account the interests of all stakeholders and then to advocating the harmonious and sustainable environmental, social and economic development. In the process of practicing sustainable development, IB has always advocated that the bank should take shareholders’ stable returns as its responsibility, carefully manage shareholders’ investments and meet shareholders’ fundamental interests with value growth. Moreover, IB serves customers as its purpose, accurately grasps customers’ needs and their changes, helps them develop sustainably, who respects employees and their value contributions, and takes employees’ growth as its responsibility to help them realize their personal value. It should set up a positive concept of competition among peers, and realize the win-win result on the competition basis; and at the same time, abide by the law and comply with business ethics and citizens’ corporate responsibilities.
Based on this, IB has put forward the social responsibility approach of “integrating righteousness with profitability”, which combines social responsibility with the bank’s business, implements such responsibility into specific aspects of the bank’s operation and management, and seeks business opportunities while fulfilling its social responsibility, exploring a sustainable and developable business model and social responsibility practice model for the bank and society to win together. IB has successfully developed a number of mature business models for practicing social responsibility in its products and services, such as green finance and inclusive finance.
As a pioneer in green finance of mainland China, IB has vigorously promoted the development of green finance, taken the initiative to bear the responsibility and help fight in the three major battles, and opened up a sustainable development path of “integrating righteousness with profitability, from Green to Gold”. By the end of June 2019, IB has provided the financing service of green finance at a total of RMB 1,972.4 billion for 17,938 enterprises, with a financing balance of RMB 940.8 billion. The green projects IB supported can save the consumption of 29.92 million tons of standard coal and reduce 84.2843 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in China per year, which is equivalent to the effect of closing 193 100 MW thermal power stations. At the same time, IB has distinctive features in such fields as the business for small and micro enterprises, finance in relation to agriculture, countryside and farmers, community bank, pension finance, technology output of the bank-bank platform, targeted poverty alleviation and education poverty alleviation. It has continuously improved its financial services for private, small and micro enterprises, the “agriculture, countryside and farmers”, the poverty population and the disadvantaged groups, and developed a path of differentiated inclusive finance with IB characteristics. By the end of June 2019, IB’s loans for inclusive micro and small enterprises and private enterprises were increased by 52.41% and 22.14% respectively year-on-year. In addition, IB’s balances of targeted poverty alleviation loans and industrial targeted poverty alleviation loans were increased by 16.17% and 35.70% compared with the end of the previous year; and the balance of personal targeted poverty alleviation loans was RMB 1.655 billion, involving a total of 9,047 transactions.