Published on July 2, 2021

La Banque Postale announces new milestones for its community ambitions

At the “Citizens’ Economy Dialogues”, hosted by La Banque Postale on June 29, Philippe Heim, Chief Executive Officer, unveiled new milestones reaffirming his commitment towards a “just transition”, which involves transforming the banking model and adjusting the bank’s offering.

He gave a preview of La Banque Postale's company purpose and its determination to become a mission-led company. Finally, drawing on the strength of its position as the world's leading bank in CSR, La Banque Postale announced its ambition to unite all its stakeholders, customers, employees and fellow citizens around the challenges of a “just transition”.  

The “Citizens’ Economy Dialogues” gathered around twenty participants committed to the transformation of the economy, including high-ranking international personalities and decision-makers , such as Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Pascal Lamy, Chairman of the Peace Forum and coordinator of the Jacques Delors policy network, alongside with representatives of civil society, such as writer and film director Cyril Dion, representatives of NGOs and associations such as Lucie Pinson, Founder and Director of the NGO Reclaim Finance, Laurence Drake, General Representative of the Foundation for Action to Fight Exclusion, and Véronique Andrieux, CEO of WWF France.

Together, they discussed the role of the financial sector in supporting climate, environmental, social, demographic and regional transitions. They also shared the means and levers needed, individually or collectively, to build a more socially responsible economy.

“The far-reaching changes we are experiencing reinforce the need to act together to support climate, environmental, social, demographic and regional transitions. This is the start of a major movement at La Banque Postale to promote the just transition both individually and collectively. Our approach entails a major shift of our banking model as well as the need to co-construct, alongside with our internal and external stakeholders, news milestones for shaping the world of tomorrow. This is the reason why I have taken new structural commitments and presented my roadmap at the ‘Citizens’ Economy Dialogues’.”

Philippe Heim

Chief Executive Officer of La Banque Postale

La Banque Postale is setting new milestones in line with its ambitions to promote a “just transition”

As the heir of La Poste’s financial services, La Banque Postale stands out for its ambition, values and community initiatives since its creation 15 years ago. In line with the “Banque Postale 2030” strategic plan presented last March, the company is determined to speed up its community agenda. La Banque Postale took advantage of its “Citizens’ Economy Dialogues” to unveil the new building blocks of its banking model and the support measures for its customers.

Transforming our banking business model through:

  • the Global Impact Weighting Factor project, which is aimed at creating a new performance metric focusing on social, environmental and regional impacts. This project is crucial for supporting the just transition that lies at the heart of La Banque Postale’s strategy. Work underway focuses on building a multi-purpose tool that measures the environmental, social and regional ramifications of each of La Banque Postale’s loan and investment decisions (CO2 footprint, support for vulnerable customers, etc.) in addition to measuring financial risks and returns. The Global Impact Weighting Factor is a proprietary metric. It will be developed through a process of co-construction with all stakeholders who want to join this project (customers, associations, universities, NGOs, and so on). In particular, La Banque Postale’s strategic partnership with WWF aims to enrich these reflections.

  • eco-designing our products with a set of specific criteria to reflect, in a transparent way, their positive impacts. WWF will ensure that the selected metrics are consistent, in particular with regard to the inclusion of ESG criteria;

  • launching a consultation among the French public so that they can pick, from a list of proposals, the products and services they expect for tomorrow;

  • supporting biodiversity and raising both clients and employees’ awareness on this issue, notably through Cyril Dion’s new film, Animal.

Supporting customers in a just transition with a new set of products and services:

  • launching consumer impact loans, which will boost our customers’ social commitment by encouraging them to adopt a more responsible consumption while enabling them to offset their own footprint;

  • incorporating the Carbo solution into online banking, which will enable more than 8 million customers who use La Banque Postale’s digital platform to measure their own carbon footprint in their day-to-day consumption as well as to explore ways to reduce it;

  • launching a range of new savings products that respond to the major societal challenges faced, with the development of La Banque Postale Asset Management’s range of sharing funds and the launch of a real asset infrastructure impact fund aligned with the 2°C trajectory

La Banque Postale, a recognised international leadership, ranked 1st worldwide in the field of CSR

With a score of 75/100 awarded in June 2021 by the non-financial rating agency Vigeo Eiris, La Banque Postale maintain its leading position as the world’s No. 1 bank in terms of CSR. Across all economic sectors, it is ranked 2nd in the world out of more than 5,000 companies rated. La Banque Postale is also the world leading bank in the “Public & Regional Banks” section according to ISS-ESG and 4th in the Sustainalytics ranking which include all banks.

 La Banque Postale wishes to pursue its commitment by introducing more stringent standards, new methods and strategic orientations to improve finance’s ability to have a positive impact on the environment.

La Banque Postale has embraced a company purpose and announced its determination to become a mission-led company

Strengthened by its co-building efforts alongside its employees, customers, partners, suppliers, elected officials and local authorities, La Banque Postale’s company purpose has been unveiled during the Citizens’ Economy Dialogues. 

La Banque Postale Group’s company purpose

  “Because it was created with the purpose of serving the public, La Banque Postale believes that there can be no long-lasting value creation without redistribution, no economic growth without local prosperity, and no sustainable development without respect for planet boundaries.

By offering quality and accessible services, our purpose is to enable everyone to fulfil their potential and to contribute, through their investment, savings, insurance and consumption choices, to building a society that is more attentive to the planet and all who live on it. As a committed banker and insurer, it is our desire to work towards this just transition alongside our customers and employees.”

In line with La Poste Group, which became a mission-led company on 8 June, La Banque Postale has announced its commitment to becoming a mission-led company. According to this timetable, the next few months will be devoted to defining several social and environmental objectives which will then be incorporated into the company’s status.