CIB seeks to become 1st climate positive bank in Egypt

09 / 04 / 2021

• news

The Commercial International Bank (CIB) aspires to become the first climate positive bank in Egypt amid plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2025.  The bank plans to allocate the proceeds from the green bond – issued in 2020  at $ 100 million – to serve the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goal 13 on climate change as well as the goals number 6, 7, 9 and 11 which fall within the materiality of CIB.

The bank highlighted its commitment to proceed with its sustainability drive in its Principles for Responsible Banking Progress Report which has been issued recently under the title “Towards an Impact-Driven Approach.”

DCarbon attests to CIB’s PRB:

DCarbon – a certified training partner to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – was engaged with the CIB to perform limited assurance on selected responses within the Bank’s Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Self-Assessment Template for the period ending February 28th, 2021.

DCarbon has reviewed the selected responses in the PRB Self-Assessment Template of the CIB. Considering the risk of material error, DCarbon received all necessary explanations from the bank to support sufficient evidence to its assurance conclusion.

Based on the activities performed and evidences received, in its opinion, the CIB has complied, in all material respects, with the UNEP Finance Initiative’s Principles for Responsible Banking framework for the period ended 28th, February 2021.

Focusing on confronting climate change, the CIB has joined the Egyptian Pollution Abatement (EPAP III) in partnership with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) as a participating bank, with the objective of promoting improvements and expansion of existing projects with an environmental impact.

It is worth mentioning that the bank launched in 2019 a green finance product – Green Credit Line. The aim of this product is to support CIB’s customers who wish to achieve economic growth through environmentally targeted projects and practices. The loan is provided by CIB’s funds at a preferential interest rate and is focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as all projects that provide evidence of positive environmental impact.

CIB first financial institution to undertake Life Cycle Assessment:

In an effort to show industry leadership towards achieving a positive impact on the environment, CIB was the first financial institution in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa Region to undertaken a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of its card payment system.

The LCA technique measures the environmental impacts associated with a product or service life stages, beginning with raw material extraction, processing of materials, and manufacturing, to its distribution and use.

The bank has undertaken this LCA on CIB’s card payment system which includes four main components, namely credit and debit cards, ATMs, Point of Sale (POS) terminals, and Datacenters, basing its analysis on the number of cards and number of transactions in 2019.

The main purpose of this exercise is to assess the environmental impacts of multiple card optimization scenarios in order to empower the decision-making process within the bank with regards to digitalization of the system and its associated environmental and health impacts.

Moreover, it increases the accuracy of the carbon footprint and ecological footprint assessments that the Bank conducts on a yearly basis, and assists the Bank in achieving its climate change targets that were set at the end of 2019 of 10% carbon emission reduction by 2025.

The assessment began with a thorough examination of primary input data and validation for all components and subsystems, such as the composition of cards, electricity consumption of ATMs, and fuel combustion per km for transportation.

Accordingly, the environmental impacts were assessed for component of the payment system. Based on the results, different scenarios for lowering the impact of the card payment and achieving optimum ecological efficiency have been studied and analyzed from an environmental perspective including;   going cardless; introducing alternative payment solutions like e-wallets and mobile payments to reduce the number of credit/debit cards issued; increasing the lifetime of debit and credit cards; using renewable energy to power ATMs; using alternative materials for the manufacturing of the cards; optimizing ATM energy consumption; increasing the recycling rate for all system components.

CIB launches Sustainability Reporting Award at 10^th Egypt CSR Forum:

2020 was a remarkable year in the CIB’s five-year sustainability march. It marked the fifth anniversary for sustainability reporting. Since becoming one of the first institutions in Egypt to introduce sustainability reporting in 2015, CIB has gradually enhanced its commitment to sustainability across its business, integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions into its policies, procedures, operations, and culture.

CIB celebrated its fifth year of sustainability reporting by launching a Sustainability Reporting Award, given to twenty participants from the 10^th Egypt CSR Forum. Award recipients received free Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Training, over a two-day virtual workshop.

This falls within the framework of the bank’s strategy to increase sustainability education and spread awareness of the importance of transparent reporting. Various sectors were represented including, but not limited to, petrochemicals, tourism, telecom, and education.

In this training, the bank shared sector-specific experience and sustainability issues, enriching the discussion and increasing knowledge sharing.

CIB also backed SMEs to adopt sustainable business activities:

CIB has also empowered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt sustainable business activities. Transitioning SMEs to environment, economic, social, and governance (EESG) practices allows them leverage to access new markets, reduce operational costs, achieve efficiency, and access capital financing opportunities among other benefits.

CIB Sustaining SMEs program seeks to mobilize sustainable finance for all SMEs in Egypt influenced directly or indirectly by CIB, and to include SMEs in the sustainability conversation.

The program commenced with a baseline Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) survey study of a sample of 205 CIB-funded SMEs.

Accordingly, the Bank defined strategic priorities to build momentum across five areas of action; awareness, learning, support, innovation, and perpetual improvement. Those areas were further divided into comprehensive paths, each full of unique opportunities to rethink business, explore ground-breaking solutions, and implement real change.

SMEs secure the livelihood of a large and growing portion of the Egyptian population and representing around 95% of the industrial sector.

CIB listed on Bloomberg’s 2021 GEI over efforts to serve SDG 5 on gender equality:

Pursuing the sustainable development goals, the CIB was listed on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI) for the third time for its efforts to serve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5).

This year, CIB was selected to be one of the first two private sector companies to participate in the relaunch of the Egyptian Gender Equity Seal (EGES) certification process in 2019/2020.

CIB is currently the only Egyptian company to receive the certification twice (once in 2010, and again this year).

CIB is also the only bank in the MENA region to receive this certification based on the World Bank Gender Equity Model (GEM). This seal is supported by the government and is represented by the National Council for Women and the World Bank.

It provides the best quality standards and practices in the areas of employment, career progression, work-family balance, and combating sexual harassment.

CIB has passed all the necessary steps to obtain the seal, and looks forward to working on sharing our experience and the lessons learned to institutions operating in Egypt.

A case study documenting CIB’s journey has been produced in this respect to inspire other companies to take part in the initiative.

CIB was also named among 230 global companies in the 2019 GEI. It is worth noting that the GEI aims to offer investors a glimpse into public companies’ commitment to advancing gender equality through the measurement of five pillars: female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand. Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS) CIB was the first bank in Egypt to sign the UN Women Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS) in 2019.

CIB has a special lending program for Women in Business (WIB) and it also launched Heya Credit Card which is a ladies-only card that gives women the opportunity to enjoy an exciting shopping experience and benefit from exclusive offers and discounts up to 40% across a wide range of selected merchants. As a Heya Credit Card holder, customers are automatically enrolled in Heya life insurance.

CIB was the exclusive regional sponsor of She’s Next, the global event empowered by Visa in September 2020 to support and champion women entrepreneurs

The CIB Business Banking sponsored “She Can 2020,” the largest female entrepreneurship event in the MENA region. CIB Business Banking supports women in business by holding workshops and providing advice on how to best utilize banking products for women in business.

CIB participated in “Career for Her” with the aim of empowering young females to develop their own talents and pursue on better career opportunities. Career for Her is the first virtual career fair in Egypt that is designed to advance women in business.

Early in 2020, the bank introduced the “Helemek Yehemena” initiative with the purpose of increasing female employee representation across branches. This initiative aims at encouraging women and unlocking their full potential by attracting talented calibers for vacant positions across all governorates in Egypt in partnership with different universities. The initiative helps women through short training programs that began in South Valley University in Qena. To date, more than 200 women in Upper Egypt and Port Said were reached, with the aim of further expanding the program across Egypt.

CIB also launched an Exclusive Women Leadership Program by Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI), specifically tailored to women at the middle and first-line management levels.

CIB has represented an example for how financial institutions can play their role in the global drive for attaining the sustainable development goals. The bank has exerted great efforts over the past five years and is enthusiastic to do more in the future.