Sustainable development and the addressing of climate change’s risks constitute currently two of the most important challenges, both for business activities and society in general, and require the definition of long-term goals, as well as a systematic and multilateral, at national, European and international level, cooperation in order to be addressed.

The environmental and climate change crisis and the need for transparent corporate processes are raising the companies’ awareness to integrate ESG criteria (environment, society, governance) in their internal business processes.

The ESG criteria assess the footprint of companies on the environment and on society as well their response to the corporate governance principles. Their adoption and integration helps companies’ profitability and financial performance on multiple levels, enhancing their attractiveness towards investors, whilst at the same time protecting them against related risks.

In this new environment, banks play a pivotal role in terms of promoting sustainable development and the transition efforts towards a green economy. Supervisory and regulatory provisions require banks to improve their credit risk assessment processes in order to identify and weight climate and environmental risks, as well as to integrate ESG criteria into the credit assessment process of their corporate clientele.

In this context, HBA, in cooperation and on behalf of its member-banks, announces a new initiative concerning the adoption of standardized ESG questionnaires. The aim of this action is to collect data that will help the banks’ corporate clients to improve their ESG performance.

Standardized ESG questionnaires that adopt internationally recognized standards, guidelines and best practices have been developed and are available at the so-called interbank platform “ESGr”. Within 2023, the relevant communication actions will start with their corporate clientele. Against this backdrop companies, depending on their size and sector of activity, will be called upon to respond promptly.

The advantages of standardized ESG questionnaires for companies are indicatively the following:

• Limitation of the volume of information required by companies.
• Fully-fledged automated solution that accelerates the recording process, whilst at the same time ensuring correct completion and data protection.
• Common approach for companies of the same size and industry.
• Harmonization of the requested data with the provisions, among others, in the Directive (EU) 2022/2464 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – CSDR).

This joint initiative of HBA member-banks will facilitate, thanks to its convenience and the low costs it entails, the ESG transition of the Greek companies. The Greek banking system remains committed to support by all means the transition of companies towards a green and socially responsible operating model; thus promoting the sustainable development of the Greek economy, society and entrepreneurship.