Julius Bär

The responsibility for sustainability issues within Julius Bär lies with the highest governing body. In terms of its approach towards impact management, the bank acknowledges that its financing activities have both positive and negative impacts. It also identified and prioritised its impacts through a materiality assessment process which included feedback from external stakeholders, as well as set targets for its prioritised impacts. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, Julius Bär has a gender-balanced board of directors where 4 out of 10 members are women.

Julius Bär discloses absolute financed emissions, as well as the underlying data quality and coverage of its financed emissions.

Julius Bär has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights. The bank discloses a global tax strategy for which an executive-level individual has responsibility. It also discloses its lobbying expenditures. Regarding diversity, Julius Bär discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, there is no evidence that Julius Bär links the remuneration of the group’s executive team to sustainability performance criteria. The bank has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees. There is no evidence that the bank discloses the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category or how it addresses any pay gaps.

There is no evidence that Julius Bär discloses a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The bank 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. It could also disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. No evidence was found regarding Julius Bär’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. Regarding nature and biodiversity, no evidence was found that Julius Bär is committed to minimising its negative impacts or financing regenerative solutions.

Julius Bär has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. It could also establish a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. No evidence was found regarding Julius Bär’s policy on bribery and corruption or its processes for identifying and addressing them. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, the bank 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.