Rabobank

Rabobank discloses that it engages with clients as a response to sustainability signals, including breaches of its sustainability policy. In terms of its approach towards impact management, the bank acknowledges that its financing activities have both positive and negative impacts, and discloses its impact analysis aligned with Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB). In addition, Rabobank provides a list of sustainability- and non-sustainability associations and partnerships of which it is a member and discloses its contributions.

As a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), Rabobank has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. Furthermore, it discloses sectors it prioritizes for its engagement in line with the NZBA guidelines. Additionally, the bank discloses alignment with the Paris Agreement as a key topic for engagement and is a member of Climate Action 100+. Rabobank also discloses the aggregate amount of its green bonds and loans which meet internationally adopted frameworks. Furthermore, Rabobank is a signatory to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge and conducts a portfolio biodiversity impact analysis. In addition to publishing sector policies and related financing criteria, Rabobank provides an overview of the ongoing and closed engagements in 2021 covering topics such as soy, palm oil, and the overuse of natural capital resources.

Rabobank has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights, the ILO core labour rights, the health and safety of workers and to prohibit bribery and corruption and protect personal data. Regarding diversity and inclusion, the bank discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Furthermore, it provides a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Rabobank discloses its global tax strategy, supervised by a supervisory board committee, and the amount of corporate income tax paid for each tax jurisdiction where it is a resident for tax purposes.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, there is no evidence that Rabobank assigns responsibility for sustainability to the group’s supervisory board and links the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. The bank has the opportunity to improve its performance on gender equality by disclosing a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, the proportion of women in senior leadership roles as well as how it addresses any gender pay gaps. Moreover, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only 33% of the board members are women. Regarding its engagement on sustainability topics with clients, Rabobank has an opportunity to disclose escalation criteria and evidence of how it is applied in practice.

The financial institution could disclose interim emissions reduction targets at the group level, such as a 45% reduction in financed emissions by 2030. Rabobank could also disclose that it requires clients to have a strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement. In relation to its climate solution, the bank has an opportunity to improve by disclosing time-bound targets explicitly for its green bonds and loans. Although Rabobank provides evidence of the amount devoted to fuels in its lending portfolio, it could disclose the amount of finance directed towards all fossil fuels through all its financing activities.

Rabobank discloses it carries out human rights due diligence in its relationships with its clients but has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks across all its activities. In terms of diversity, the bank discloses the ages of its supervisory board and managing board members but could disclose this information for each employee category. Rabobank can improve its transparency on financial inclusivity by disclosing the amount of finance directed towards women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or low-income developing countries. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a mechanism accessible to all external individuals and communities who may be adversely impacted by the financial institution to raise human rights complaints.