Highlights of the Human Rights Report and Impact Report

Our bank has more than 20,000 employees and over five million clients. Our business loans and investments touch the lives of millions more people worldwide. As a bank, we want to have as clear a picture as possible of the impact of these activities on people, and to use our influence to respect human rights where needed.

In the report, we aim to be transparent about our efforts and dilemmas in the field of human rights, so we offer insights and hold up a mirror to ourselves. Because it’s important to us, but also because regulators, social stakeholders (NGOs) and rules and regulations call increasingly for transparency. For example, you can read in the Human Rights Report about our provision of information to non-profit organisations. Stricter requirements often make it difficult for these organisations to open bank accounts or access banking services and this prevents them from doing their work, putting even greater pressure on the vulnerable people they support.

You can also read about how we got talking to seafarers through social media and learned about the sometimes bad working conditions on ships. We are now working with specialists on new ways to engage with our clients in the shipping industry and help improve working conditions for their employees.

Want to know the full story? It’s all here in the Human Rights Report online.

In the Impact Report, we document the positive as well as the negative impact we make. We use established calculation methods to analyse the impact we have on the climate and the environment as well as society as a whole. We do this with a focus on mortgages, biodiversity and the various economic sectors.

You can read in the Impact Report, for example, about how sector banker Pierre Berntsen foresees the Dutch agricultural sector changing, becoming more sustainable and circular. He also talks about what our bank is doing to contribute and how we are helping clients to make this transition.

Or see how Bart Banning, sector banker with Transport & Logistics, helps his clients roll out ambitious sustainability programmes. In this sector, which is under the magnifying glass when it comes to sustainability and innovations, company-specific data is crucial.

Henk Hofstede is a sector banker in retail – where transparency is a major issue. Society wants to know where products come from and now new legislation is imminent that will oblige companies to disclose this. How will these developments affect the sector? You can read about it in the Impact Report.

Want to read more? You can find the whole Impact Report here.