Credit Agricole

In terms of its approach towards impact management, Credit Agricole acknowledges the positive and negative impacts of its financing activities and it prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment which included feedback from external stakeholders. The financial institution assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the Board-level Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and links the remuneration of its executive and management team to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, it publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and has a gender-balanced board of directors where eight out of 18 members are women. The financial institution’s subsidiary, Amundi publishes case studies describing where it has engaged successfully and unsuccessfully with its investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

As a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Credit Agricole has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses absolute financed emissions and the underlying data quality and coverage. The financial institution’s subsidiary, Amundi, discloses the key sectors and companies it prioritised to engage with on climate change and that it requires them to set targets in alignment with the Paris Agreement. The subsidiary is also a member of Climate Action 100+. Credit Agricole already provided EUR 11.7 billion through its green loan portfolio against its target of EUR 13 billion by the end of this year. It provides evidence that it requires clients in some sectors to have a strategy addressing their nature- and biodiversity-related impacts, while Amundi collectively engages with its investees on the topic of their nature- and biodiversity-related impacts.

Credit Agricole has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It describes its process for assessing its human rights risks and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Furthermore, the financial institution discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and age group. Credit Agricole has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address it. It discloses a global tax strategy and income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. The financial institution discloses the amount of finance it directs towards first-time home buyers, self-employed healthcare professionals and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In terms of gender equality, the bank has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. The financial institution could describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees across its financing activities, similar to how it does for its asset management business.

Credit Agricole could disclose interim emissions reduction targets at the group level, such as a 45% reduction in financed emissions by 2030. Although it discloses the aggregate amount of financing to climate solutions, the bank has an opportunity to disclose what the climate solutions are and align with the internationally recognised frameworks. While Credit Agricole discloses the amount of finance directed towards fossil fuel sectors in some of its financing activities, it could disclose similar information through all its financing activities, especially its insurance underwriting activities. Additionally, it could also disclose that it will not provide any form of finance to any new fossil fuel project or companies undertaking them. There is no evidence that Credit Agricole is committed to minimising negative impacts on nature and biodiversity across its financing activities.

Credit Agricole describes a process for identifying its human rights risks, but it could clarify if this covers all its financing activities, especially its lending and banking activities. While the financial institution discloses the breakdown of its credit portfolio by regions, there is no evidence that it discloses the amount of financing going to developing countries.