Yapı Kredi's Material Topics
Sustainability is defined as the ability to exist and develop without consuming natural resources while bearing future generations in mind. Consisting of three main components: environmental, economic, and social, the main purposes of the concept of sustainability are protecting the environment, focusing on dynamic balance, and meeting our own needs without compromising on those of future generations.
Yapı Kredi aims to increase the access of all sections of the society to finance, from the backbone of the economy SMEs to entrepreneurs, with its products and services ranging from renewable energy financing to green mortgages, and thus supporting Turkey’s transition to a low carbon economy.
In order to utilize its capital holdings in the most effective manner possible and establish long-term relationships with the stakeholders, the Bank regularly reviews its material issues. Yapı Kredi takes the following into consideration in setting those material issues:
- International reporting standards related to sustainability,
- Evaluation criteria for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings,
- The Bank's corporate strategic goals,
- Current mega-trends affecting the banking industry,
- The expectations and requests of the stakeholders, communicated through various channels.
Yapı Kredi takes the following into consideration while determining stakeholders' order of priority:
- The opinions and expectations of prioritized persons and groups among all its stakeholders, through stakeholder analysis,
- The global and sector trends and the priorities of international agencies and global sustainability indexes through external trend analysis.
Yapı Kredi takes the following into consideration when determining its own order of priority:
- The opinions and expectations of the senior management team,
- The Bank's strategy and sustainability approach,
- The financial, legal, innovative, and competitive risks and opportunities, through the four-stage impact analysis.
The Bank's sustainability strategy is evaluated under four main categories within the scope of national and international sustainability trends, and internal and external stakeholder expectations.
Focus areas of the Bank's Sustainability Strategy:
- Climate Crisis and Environmental Management
- Risk Management and Corporate Governance
- Sustainable Finance
- People and Society
In line with the Bank's targets for sustainable and innovative product development:
- Yapı Kredi issued its first green bond in January 2020.
- Yapı Kredi lent the bond resources to renewable energy projects to continue its support of Turkey's transition to a low-carbon economy.
- In steering its activities, Yapı Kredi continues to follow the Sustainable Development Goals, aiming to find solutions to global problems and also continues to promote the understanding of responsible finance.
- Yapı Kredi is a founding signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking (UN PRB) and is one of the banks leading the sector in terms of sustainability.
- The Bank responds regularly and transparently to the CDP Climate Change and CDP Water Security programs, the world's largest environmental reporting agency.
- With its high performance in sustainability management, Yapı Kredi continues to be included in the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Markets Index of FTSE Russell, a global index provider affiliated with the London Stock Exchange, which measures the environmental, social and corporate governance performances of companies. In addition, Yapı Kredi was included in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index for the first time in 2021 by getting a grade above the global and sectoral average with its reporting within the scope of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.
