EFG International

In terms of senior leadership accountability, EFG International assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability advisory board. Furthermore, the financial institution has an engagement policy where it describes its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees, including the approach to engagement escalation. It also publishes an engagement report describing how the engagement policy is applied in practice, including examples of successful engagement with investees. In addition, EFG International institution discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organisations.

As a member of Climate Action 100+, EFG International discloses that it collectively engages with its investees on the topic of climate change. It also discloses deforestation as one of its engagement topics with investees and provides evidence that it collectively engages with investees on the topic of deforestation and forest fires.

EFG International has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, EFG International has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive and management teams to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the financial institution has a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only two out of 14 board members are women. In addition, the financial institution has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

There is no evidence that EFG International discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the financial institution could disclose the amount of its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. No evidence was found regarding the financial institution’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects. Besides engagement on deforestation, no further evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

There is no evidence that EFG International has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. It has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. Furthermore, it could disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group, gender or another indicator of diversity. 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.