13
Structure
We chose to work around the most frequently
used ESG structure (
Environment, Social and
corporate Governance
)
supplemented with the
portion of the indirect social impact that is
important for the financial sector via product
offer. After all, via investments and lending the
sector is able to specifically support sustain-
able companies and projects.
Sources
To measure the social impact of the financial
sector, three types of sources were consulted:
> Public and independent sources.
These are mainly government bodies such
as the National Bank of Belgium, the Fed-
eral Public Service Economy, the Federal
Public Service Social Security, the Office
of the Ombudsman for the financial sector,
etc.
> Closed and independent sources.
For these we could call on the cooperation
of Vigeo, a research institution specialised
in the sustainability screening of financial
institutions among others.
> Closed internal sources.
Naturally, the members of Febelfin were
questioned in detail about the integration
of the various dimensions of sustainability
in their operational management.
The figures used are equally the result of sam-
ples, surveys and mandatory statistics.
Interpretation
figures
When figures are used in this report that are
based on the members’ survey, they are always
stated as:
a percentage, weighted in accordance with
the share of the balance sheet of the insti-
tutions in the sample, extrapolated to the
whole market
the number of institutions out of a total
of 19
There is a large diversity between the partici-
pating institutions in respect of the number
of employees and the size of the balance sheet
(
the 4 large banks, for instance, represent ap-
prox. 86% of the total balance sheet and of the
number of employees). The size of the insti-
tution is important when we wish to decide
something about its impact on society. There-
fore, the weighted percentages seem most rel-
evant to us.
>
Approach