An active involvement in European and International CSR debates
The specificities and importance of CSR activities developed by savings banks are actively promoted at the European Union (EU) level and in other international CSR fora.
ESBG is actively involved in the discussions on CSR at European level and has strongly supported the CSR voluntary approach which was adopted by the European Commission in 2006.
In 2008, ESBG decided to bring an active contribution to the EU CSR Alliance and set up a Laboratory on “Business involvement to enhance social inclusion at the local level”. The Laboratory is based on initiatives developed by European savings banks and highlights key success factors and lessons learnt for business involvement in local social projects which seek to empower socially and financially excluded people. It specifically focused on social entrepreneurship and the expansion of access to finance/financial services, including through microcredit activities. For more information click European Savings Banks Group "CSR Lab"on Business involvement to enhance social inclusion at local level.
ESBG is also involved with the European CSR MultiStakeholder Forum, run by the European Commission.
Moreover, ESBG brings specific expertise on specific CSR-related projects of the European Commission, such as
For more information about recent ESBG position papers, click here
Savings banks are also active at international level, through WSBI, with:
- the United Nations Global Compact, to give visibility to the CSR experiences of the members and reflect their collective commitment to responsible business practices
- the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is currently in the process of defining a Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility. WSBI is a member of the ISO Working group and has expressed its views and proposals on the wide-ranging initiative of ISO. Click here for WSBI views on ISO Draft Guidance Standard
- WSBI is also in touch with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD regarding its project on Financial education and actively participates to exchange of views and experiences in this context.
- On the Environment, WSBI is liaising with the United Nations Environment Programme-Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), with as a primary objective at this stage to raise non European members’ awareness on the importance of the issue and to build capacities. WSBI has also contributed to the development of social and environment performance reporting indicators for financial institutions, by the UNEP-FI/GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)