Isbank

Isbank’s sustainability practices are governed by the Corporate Governance Committee which sits under the board of directors, and the Deputy Chief Executive assumes the role of Chief Sustainability Officer who is responsible for the bank’s sustainability initiatives. Moreover, Isbank publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and has been a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles since 2020. It also discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organisations.

Isbank discloses its scope 3 portfolio emissions as well as the underlying data quality and coverage of its financed emissions. It also provides evidence that it requires investing companies to make commitments to preserve biodiversity in specific areas.

Isbank has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints as well as bribery and corruption concerns. Moreover, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption. Isbank discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group and gender, as well as those covered by collective bargaining agreements. Additionally Isbank discloses the amount of finance it directs towards SMEs.

While Isbank discloses incentives that link energy reduction and climate-related sustainability performance targets to executives’ remuneration, these are climate targets related to its operations rather than financing activities. Regarding gender equality, the bank has an opportunity to disclose how it is addressing the gender pay gap as well as the representation of women in senior leadership roles. Currently, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only 1 out of 11 board members is a woman. There is no evidence that the financial institution describes its engagement process related to clients and investees.

While Isbank has emissions targets for its own operations, there is no evidence that it discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. Moreover, the bank has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change. Though the bank collectively engages with partners such as TUSIAD and PROPARCO, there is no evidence that these engagements focus on the topic of climate change. Furthermore, Isbank could disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

There is no evidence that Isbank has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. The bank has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, including its financing activities. While Isbank discloses that is provides financial support to disadvantaged groups such as women and young entrepreneurs, no evidence was found regarding the monetary amount of this financing. The bank also has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance it directs towards low-income, developing countries.