Some of the results of the Corporate Social Responsibility survey are disgraceful. According to Carsten Zielke of Zielke Research Consult „there are CSR reports that are not worthy of being called CSR reports. In some cases, we are told that they prefer to spend money on sustainability projects rather than on reporting.“

The study examined 110 sustainability reports published by private sector commercial banks, savings banks and cooperative banks for 2022, that have assets of over 5 billion euros and more than 500 employees.

„It's not rocket science to create a sensible, transparent and informative CSR report, even for a smaller bank," says Zielke." This is illustrated by the good work from many smaller banks, he adds. It is about writing down what you are doing in this area, or showing what you are going to do. But many banks do neither.

Those that provide good reporting have understood where the journey is heading. Due to regulatory requirements, banks will have to deal with this topic even more in the future. „Increasingly, business partners are choosing their banks and insurance companies based on their CSR rating," Zielke notes. It is no longer enough to pay lip service. Hard facts are needed.

Environmental, social and governance factors were given equal weighting in the Zielke assessment. The top three banks were KfW, Taunus Sparkasse and Helaba. The lowest ratings were given to GLS Bank, Dortmunder Volksbank and VR Rosenheim-Chiemsee.

At KfW, for example, the implementation of the women's quota was clear and convincing. The report states: „A target quota of 40% is to be achieved for team leaders, and 25% for divisional managers. (…) With this in mind, KfW established a project team in 2021 consisting of employees from all HR departments, and the Equal Opportunities Officer and her three representatives.“

The banks' enthusiasm for CSR reporting seems to have faded noticeably. According to Zielke, on the environment institutions are continuing to make an effort, but when it comes to social issues and corporate governance, reporting looks shoddier than in the previous year.

Nonetheless, overall the results in all three ESG areas have improved. The savings banks in particular have made gains in the environmental area, while the commercial banks have scored better in the governance area. The cooperative banks, on the other hand, lost points, particularly in the social area.

Of the three groups of institutions, the savings banks are doing the most. At the savings banks, there are also initiatives at association level to improve sustainability reporting. In the environmental section, for example, the focus was placed on concrete measures to reduce CO2, the proportion of green electricity, CO2 emissions, ESG in lending policy, and the taxonomy ratio.

The top three banks in the environmental area are Unicredit Group with 4.87 points, followed by Kreissparkasse Reutlingen with 4.77 points, and Kreissparkasse Göppingen with 4.56 points. These banks are particularly characterised by their commitment to the environment. At Sparkasse Reutlingen, for example, the report states: „The company discloses its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol or standards based on it, and states the targets it has set itself for reducing emissions. (…) The GHG emissions of the reporting year totaling 844 tons were offset in 2023.“ This means that the Sparkasse's business operations are largely greenhouse gas neutral.

Helaba is also among the top ten in the environment category and, according to Zielke Research, offers its customers a wide range of sustainable financing options in the ESG area. The three banks with the lowest environmental scores are Dortmunder Volksbank eG (–0.31 points), Landesbank Berlin (–0.33 points) and Sachsen Finanzgruppe (–0.33 points). Hardly any information was available in these cases.

Social criteria in the analysis of the CSR reports are inclusion, women's quotas, social commitment through donations, work-life balance, and health management. The savings banks are clearly ahead in the social area, even though the proportion of women is highest among the private commercial banks. The savings banks also score well in customer surveys, and make great efforts to integrate physically disadvantaged employees. According to Zielke, cooperative banks disappoint across the board (except for the proportion of women).

The best three banks in the social area are Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal with 5.58 points, Taunus Sparkasse with 5.50 points and DZ Bank with 5.08 points.

The last-placed banks are Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg with -0.8 points, Dortmunder Volksbank with -1.25 points and Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Rosenheim-Chiemsee with -2.5 points.

In the area of governance, the Capital Requirements Regulation section is particularly weak, because the legislator has allowed more freedom and the disclosures have become more incomplete. Listed companies look best in this respect, while the development banks make use of the exemptions and hardly say anything about the topics. CRR disclosures are far more than just financial data. They are about making risk management processes transparent. "It's also about the question of whether an institution will survive the next few years, since that is part of sustainability,“ says Zielke.

In view of the introduction of EU and International Sustainability Standards Board reporting, the need for many banks to catch up is enormous. The EU has introduced a milestone in reporting by adopting its own European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as part of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Never before have companies worldwide reported on their sustainability efforts in such depth.