Strategy & management
Sustainability at DZ BANK AG and across the DZ BANK Group: How do we cooperate, and what are the hallmarks of ‘responsible’ corporate governance?
Sustainability management is the responsibility of the Strategy & Group Development division. This division is also responsible for stakeholder communication and sustainability reporting. Sustainability ratings are managed by Investor Relations. The individual specialist divisions of DZ BANK are responsible for implementing various measures with regard to the further development of sustainability, and regularly report their progress to the Board of Managing Directors.
To step up the dialog on sustainability in the DZ BANK Group, we brought together the group’s sustainability activities and founded the Group Corporate Responsibility Committee (CRC) in 2014. The committee is made up of the sustainability coordinators of the DZ BANK Group. The Group CRC provides input for the departments so that common standards can be developed. Our objective is to exploit market opportunities and avoid risk while enhancing corporate citizenship.
By signing up to the United Nations Global Compact in 2008, DZ BANK AG committed to ten universally accepted principles covering human rights, labor standards, the environment, and the fight against corruption. In 2013, DZ BANK AG extended this commitment to the following DZ BANK Group companies: Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, DZ HYP, DZ PRIVATBANK, R+V Versicherung, TeamBank, Union Investment, and VR Smart Finanz. All of these companies use the Global Compact principles as an important guide for their behavior. They support the principles comprehensively and apply them in all areas of their business.
The basis for responsible corporate management is provided by a broad set of components that cover all parts of the business. These range from our general guidelines for business operations and for the investment and lending business in particular to our responsible HR policy, sustainability training courses, sustainability targets, and climate strategy. The resulting framework enables all employees to engage in sustainable practices in their day-to-day work.
DZ BANK attaches particular importance to achieving effective corporate governance. For us this principally means compliance, risk management, reputation management, and transparent decision making.
Compliance plays an important role in the financial sector and is something that DZ BANK and the DZ BANK Group have viewed as a natural part of their activities for many years. Governments as well as national and international regulators are calling on the financial services industry for cooperation and support in the battle against insider trading, market manipulation, corruption, and other criminal behavior, and for the imposition of financial embargoes. Additional rules regulate transactions and subject institutions to disclosure requirements and stringent inspection. This restrictive statutory environment has a fundamental effect on the way we do business as a bank. Furthermore, lawmakers and regulators have made increasing demands on banks’ compliance functions in recent years. At all sites, our staff receive regular compulsory training in banking compliance, the prevention of money laundering, the ban on market price manipulation, and fraud prevention. This compliance training also covers how to fight corruption.
DZ BANK’s code of conduct, introduced in 2012, contains various measures to prevent fraud. These include guidelines for dealing with gifts, written procedures for fraud prevention, a whistleblowing hotline, and training.
