Credit Bank of Moscow gets higher ESG rating score from RAEX-Europe
15.03.2021
Having analysed Credit Bank of Moscow's (MKB) 2020 sustainability achievements, the rating agency RAEX-Europe decided to affirm the bank's ESG rating at BBB[esg] with an 8% higher score (65.8 points out of 100).
This rating action follows MKB's recognition as the leader among Russian banks 1 in RAEX-Europe's ESG-ranking published in February 2021. Thus, the bank continues to strengthen its sustainable development positions in the Russian banking sector.
Importantly, even though the agency has tightened up its financial sector evaluation methodology as it now rates more companies, MKB has demonstrated stronger results in all of the ESG rating components (E – environment, S – society and G –governance). Its governance rating has been upgraded from А[g] to АА[g], and its social rating from BB[s] to BBB[s]. The consolidated rating of BBB[esg] means that MKB's management of ESG related risks and opportunities is of moderately high level.
MKB's major ESG achievements from early 2020 to date include the establishment of the Supervisory Board's Strategy and Sustainable Development Committee to strengthen the sustainability dimension of its corporate governance system, the formulation of its sustainable development strategy and improvement of its ESG bylaws; the expansion of its portfolio of "green" and social projects in the form of loans, securities and arrangement of capital market transactions; the broadening of public disclosure of non-financial information; initial introduction of ESG elements in various areas of the bank's business with the aim to both minimise its direct adverse environmental impact and manage its indirect impacts. Furthermore, MKB set up a dedicated subdivision responsible for this area in 2020.
"The ESG agenda has been recently gaining importance for Russian businesses and society, and we are happy to see it not only trending, but also entering our everyday life and common culture, – noted Elena Finashina, head of MKB's Sustainable Development Division. – Being a systemically important credit institution with a multilateral development bank among its shareholders and standing among the most active Russian issuers in the international capital market, we recognise our role in making our national economy more sustainable and take specific steps to contribute to this and to introduce best international ESG practices in Russia. We are glad that our progress in sustainable development has prompted independent experts to revise their evaluation upwards".
1 As at the date of this release, RAEX-Europe's ESG ranking included ten largest banks by commission and interest income for 2019. Monthly updates of the ranking can be viewed at the Agency's website: https://raexpert.eu/esg_corporate_ranking/.