Climate talks: The journey to becoming the Responsible Bank of the Year in the Czech market

In this interview, Michal Putna, Sustainability Officer of Raiffeisen Bank Czech Republic, shares the bank’s journey to become the Responsible Bank of the Year 2023.

Raiffeisen Bank received the title Responsible Bank of the Year from Mastercard, in 2023. In your opinion, what makes your performance outstanding among other Czech financial institutions?

I would say a complex approach to sustainability and ESG topics. We try to develop all three ESG pillars simultaneously. I believe that this comprehensive approach is the main reason for our success. We are the leader in the CEE region in the issuance of our own green and sustainable bonds, we offer a broad portfolio of ESG products and services - we have at least one sustainable product in each segment, our bank was certified ISO 14001 (environmental management) last year, we have been developing diversity in a long-term and systematic way - for which the bank has received numerous awards, and our corporate culture is based on fairness, a friendly atmosphere, and a culture of respect and cooperation. These were the main ingredients of our success in the Responsible Bank of the Year competition.   

You have successfully issued the largest sustainable bond by a financial institution in Central and Eastern Europe, namely EUR 500 million (CZK 12 billion). What are your future plans for 2024 and 2025? What can you tell us about your strategy?  

Issuing green bonds is a very elegant and efficient way for financial institutions to practically support the green transition. For Raiffeisenbank Czech Republic, issuing such bonds is a way to finance environmentally and socially sustainable projects. That is why we were the first Czech bank to issue our EUR 350 million green bond in 2021, followed by a EUR 500 million sustainable bond last year. Both bonds represent our unequivocal commitment to supporting the transition of the Czech economy and thereby increasing its competitiveness in the medium and long term. We plan to continue this strategy in the future and are very pleased with the strong investor interest in our bonds.  

You have launched your sustainability strategy in 2023. Any strategy needs to be carefully nurtured and anchored within an organization to achieve its goals. How do you build knowledge, awareness and commitment among your colleagues?

The vision of this sustainability strategy is to ease the path to sustainability for our clients. And we are using three main pillars to fulfill this vision: 1) ESG advisory and sustainable finance, 2) environmental and social responsibility, and 3) responsible governance and management. The development of this entire strategy has been the subject of intense discussion with many colleagues throughout the bank, including top management.

Several meetings were also held with all board members and I believe this has contributed to the strategy’s good reception within the bank. In addition, we are continuously introducing new ESG training activities to make the topic of ESG more accessible to our colleagues. We have set up a dedicated ESG section on our intranet and offer sustainability training seminars - recent presentations have focused on climate change, circularity, and waste management. I personally believe that continuous (internal) education and awareness raising on ESG is extremely important for the further successful development of the idea of sustainability.  

One last question. What challenges and further opportunities for the bank do you see on the horizon in terms of sustainable business?

One of the biggest challenges this year is clearly the preparation of the CSRD (Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Directive) report according to ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) . This is a very demanding and complex task that involves several departments in the bank - their mutual and timely coordination is a real challenge. We also want to focus on financial literacy, prepare new internal ESG trainings and workshops, and reflect with our business colleagues on the possible expansion of the sustainable product offering in the retail segment.