Financial Products with Sustainability Aspects
DZ BANK offers a wide range of sustainable financial products that combine environmental protection, resource conservation and social responsibility.
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22,7 Billion EURVolume of sustainable bonds that DZ BANK supported in 2024
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7,9 Billion EURVolume of renewable energy financing in 2024 (as of 31 December 2024)
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5,36 Billion EURVolume of promotional loans with a focus on the environment and sustainability 2024
Investing Sustainably
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Promotional Loans
Both for private and corporate customers, investments to improve energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important. Another focus is on measures that accompany demographic change. These include social programmes that promote the age-appropriate reconstruction of apartments and buildings. DZ BANK supports ecologically and socially sustainable development by providing low-interest public financing assistance. This applies in particular to development loans in the areas of environmental protection and sustainability.
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Project Financing
Since signing the Equator Principles in 2013, DZ BANK has continuously subjected project financing with an investment volume of more than USD 10 million and project-related corporate financing with an investment volume of more than USD 50 million to an audit in accordance with these principles.
This also allows us to document publicly our long-standing practice of taking sustainability-related standards into account in project financing. At the same time, DZ BANK is meeting the requirements of forward-looking risk provisioning, particularly in the area of large-volume project financing.
Renewable Energies
Financing renewable energies in Germany is the focus of our project financing. In the areas of wind, photovoltaics and biogas/biomass, the volume of credit limits for project financing committed by DZ BANK reached a total of €7.9 billion in 2024. Wind power remains the most important renewable energy source.
Public Private Partnership
Public-private partnerships (PPP) have become a successful procurement model for important public service projects in Europe in recent years. DZ BANK regularly works with partners from the cooperative financial network on PPP projects, for example to enable the construction and operation of roads/traffic routes, schools, hospitals, and administrative buildings.
Sustainable Investment Products
Sustainable and successful: In November 2021, DZ BANK issued its third green bond, following on from 2018 and 2020. The bond, which has a seven-year term and is valued at €300 million, was very well received by investors in Germany and abroad. The bank itself implemented the transaction on the basis of its proven expertise in sustainable financing and structured the bond in accordance with the current Green Bond Principles of the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA). The rating agency Standard & Poor's Global Ratings (S&P), which was commissioned to carry out an independent sustainability assessment, rates the bond with a very high environmental rating of 86/100 based on its Green Transaction Evaluation and a strong assessment of governance and reporting.
DZ BANK has been active in the sustainable bond market segment since 2013 and is one of the leading European syndicate banks in this segment. In 2024, DZ BANK has supported green, social and sustainable transactions with a total volume of around €22.7 billion.
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Exclusion Criteria and Sector Principles
DZ BANK is aware of its responsibility to people, the environment and corporate governance. Lending is one of DZ BANK's most important core activities. In this area in particular, the topic of responsibility is of great importance: As a lender, we systematically check loan requests for relevant sustainability aspects as part of the loan review process.
Setting Clear Signals: The Processes for Sustainable Lending
DZ BANK is aware of its responsibility to people, the environment and corporate governance. Lending is one of DZ BANK's most important core activities. In this area in particular, the topic of responsibility is of great importance: As a lender, we systematically check loan requests for relevant sustainability aspects as part of the loan review process.
The sustainability check in DZ BANK's lending business is carried out both for traditional lending and credit substitute business and for debt capital market business and treasury's own investments (excluding asset-backed securities). Every commitment, including corporate, project, export, foreign trade, acquisition, real estate, leasing and asset financing, must be checked for sustainability aspects. Loans to cooperative banks and companies in the DZ BANK Group as well as exposures that are being restructured are excluded from the review. Other exceptions include, among other things, special product variants in joint credit business with the cooperative banks, generally approved limits, and exposures below the rating requirement threshold.
The basis for the sustainability check in the lending process consists of five elements: our exclusion criteria, our sector policies, our RepRisk DZ BANK ESG checklist, our ESG credit risk score, and the overall assessment of sustainability risks.
No financing of activities related to the construction, operation or maintenance of nuclear power plants.
No financing of new or existing coal-fired power plants.
No financing of activities upstream in the thermal coal value chain, in particular mining, trading and directly related activities.
No financing of companies that operate coal-fired power plants, have a stake in coal-fired power plants, are active in thermal coal mining, are active in thermal coal trading, or are involved in directly related activities.
No indirect financing of companies with a coal share > 5% of turnover, unless the borrower credibly demonstrates a reduction in or withdrawal from the excluded activities in the sense of a willingness to transform, or the use of funds for coal can be ruled out.
No financing of oil exploration activities (upstream) or oil and gas extraction using fracking, oil shale, oil sand, Arctic drilling or deep sea mining.
No financing of new business that increases the credit volume (except renewals) with companies that engage in oil and gas extraction (upstream) (exception: Use of funds outside of oil and gas extraction is demonstrated).
No financing in connection with arms deals of any kind (financing of deliveries and production and trading companies) in/to countries with significant human rights violations, or outside NATO and/or in areas of tension, unless they are approved under the condition of a subsequent approval by the Federal Security Council.
No financing in connection with controversial weapons, i.e. weapons that have indiscriminate effects, cause excessive suffering, have devastating effects on the civilian population or are internationally banned. Examples of controversial weapons include (but are not limited to) nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, landmines, anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs, autonomous weapons or uranium-containing munitions.
No financing of the production or trade of controversial weapons.
No financing of companies involved in the development, production, maintenance, operation or trade of controversial weapons or their core components, unless it can be ruled out that the funds will be used for controversial weapons.
No financing of activities and projects/properties that pose significant environmental hazards. This includes, in particular, uranium mining, asbestos removal, projects/properties or activities with high risks of nuclear, biological or chemical contamination (not affected: biogas plants) and hazardous goods if the risks are not adequately managed.
No financing of mining activities that use the mountain top removal method.
No financing of activities that are directly involved in illegal logging, slash-and-burn and/or the conversion of tropical and/or primary forests and protected areas (High Conservation Value (HCV) forests/areas, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and natural habitats under IUCN categories I and II).
No financing of activities and companies in the pornography industry or comparable industries (‘red-light milieu’).
No financing of companies that engage in controversial forms of gambling. Companies that engage in controversial gambling are understood to be companies whose primary business purpose is gambling, unless they are operated by or under the care of the public sector.
No financing of companies that demonstrably violate internationally recognised principles in the area of human and labour rights. Internationally recognised principles are the UN Global Compact, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the ILO core labour standards.
No financing of trading activities in connection with endangered animal and plant species as per the CITES list (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).
No financing of trading activities in commodities that have been extracted in conflict areas by parties to the conflict in violation of human rights and that serve, among other things, to finance the conflict.
Sector Principles
DZ BANK assesses loan applications from companies in sectors that are particularly vulnerable from a sustainability perspective using its sector principles in addition to the sustainability assessment. These lay down general principles for lending and ensure that minimum ESG standards are taken into account. They are applied to projects, transactions and companies that fall within the ESG scope of application and that generate more than 50 per cent of total revenue, both directly and indirectly, in the respective sector and that act as credit recipients of DZ BANK.
Sector policies are in place for the following sectors: dams and water infrastructure, extractive industries, forestry, fisheries, maritime industry, palm oil and agriculture.
The sector policies are listed in detail in the Sustainability Report 2024 and in the DZ BANK policy on exclusion criteria, sector policies and sustainability checks.
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