Credit Suisse Group

Credit Suisse identified and prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment process which included feedback from external stakeholders. In terms of senior leadership accountability, the group assigns responsibility for sustainability issues to the Board of Directors and links the remuneration of its executive team to sustainability performance criteria. Credit Suisse has a gender-balanced board of directors where 7 out of 13 members are women and discloses a target to increase female representation to 42% of its overall workforce by 2024. The financial institution discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organisations. 

As a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Credit Suisse has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses absolute financed emissions from its corporate lending portfolio in oil, gas and coal sector, including the underlying data quality. The financial institution discloses that alignment with the Paris Agreement is one of its engagement topics with clients and that its subsidiary, Credit Suisse Asset Management collectively engages with its investees on the topic of climate change. Credit Suisse is committed to minimising its negative impacts on nature and biodiversity. Its subsidiary, Credit Suisse Asset Management, discloses nature- and biodiversity-related impacts as one of its engagement topics with its investees. 

Credit Suisse has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. It has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and age group. It also has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers.  

Credit Suisse could link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of gender equality, the group also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. Furthermore, the financial institution could disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. It also has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees, across its financing activities. 

While Credit Suisse has an interim target for corporate lending activity in the oil, gas and coal upstream and downstream sector, it has an opportunity to disclose an interim absolute emission reduction target which covers all its financing activities. The financial institution could also disclose that it requires companies to which it provides financial services to have a strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, it could disclose the amount of its sustainable finance activities devoted to climate solutions. No evidence was found regarding Credit Suisse’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and its financing activities, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects.  

Credit Suisse has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, the financial institution has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.