Our stakeholders

Context and objectives of the sustainability report of the financial sector

The degree of interconnection between the financial sector, the economy and society explains why the health of the financial sector undeniably has a major impact on the economy and on society at large. The sector plays an important role in lending to companies and private persons, and also employs about 100,000 people.

The sustainability report aims to present an overview of this impact in all its facets and show which initiatives the Belgian financial sector is taking to contribute to a sustainable society.

This report focuses on the impact and initiatives of the financial sector as a whole. However, a large number of institutions are also publishing their own sustainability report, in which they provide greater detail on the initiatives they are taking as companies.

This report is not a one-off initiative. At fixed times, the sector will publish an updated version so that the development of the sector in the various areas of sustainability can be followed up.

Support

In putting together this sustainability report, Febelfin was assisted by Business & Society, a Belgian network that brings companies and business federations from various sectors together around corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Besides making their many years’ expertise and experience in the field of company sustainability available, Business & Society engaged in the moderation of working group meetings and stakeholders consultations. Moreover, it offered support in the drawing up of the survey for the members and the analysis of the answers.

Stakeholders

The financial sector continuously keeps in touch with its stakeholders. One example of this is the NGO dialogue platform[1]. This platform maps out issues in respect of socially responsible banking and investment and enters into a discussion about this with NGOs, civil society and the financial world.

The stakeholders have been closely involved in the making of this sustainability report, both for the selection of the issues that are being dealt with as for the actual editing of the text. By means of panel discussions and interviews they have made a contribution to the materiality matrix, the questionnaire for the banks and the report. The liability for the contents of the report lies with Febelfin, but the Federation wants to explicitly express its gratitude for the effort made by the stakeholders.

The group of stakeholders that participated in the panels is composed as follows:

  • BASF-Deloitte chair on sustainability
  • Belsif
  • Business & Society Belgium
  • Centre d’appui aux services de médiation de dettes de Bruxelles
  • Festival van Vlaanderen
  • Forum Ethibel
  • Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy - HEC-Management School of the University of Liege
  • Landelijke Bediendecentrale – Nationaal Verbond voor Kaderpersoneel (LBC-NVK)
  • MIVB-STIB
  • Onderzoeks- en Informatiecentrum van de Verbruikersorganisaties (OIVO-CRIOC)
  • Réseau Financement Alternatif (RFA)
  • Vigeo

A series of interviews with NGOs, sustainability experts, scholars, trade unions and supervisors have been useful for determining the materiality matrix.

An internal Febelfin working group consisting of CSR managers from several financial institutions was in charge of the follow-up of the drafting of the report as a whole.




[1] One of the three dialogue platforms that were established by Febelfin at the end of 2009. The others are the Consumers dialogue platform and the Corporate lending dialogue platform.