The Belgo-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis has deepened its
commitment to corporate responsibility by setting out CSR goals for the
next two years under the title of ‘Agenda 2009’.
Fortis sees the goals as an important element of an ambitious growth
strategy that has led it to team up with Royal Bank of Scotland and
Banco Santander of Spain to mount a takeover bid for ABN Amro, one of
the leading proponents of CSR and SRI. Fortis chief executive Jean-Paul
Votron recently said he believed strong policies in this area would aid
the expansion of Fortis, which generates only around a fifth of its
earnings outside the Benelux countries.
Agenda 2009 commits the bank to introducing financial products and
services that take account of sustainability, beginning a carbon
neutrality
programme, and drawing up a human rights statement. It is also to
expand the Fortis foundations, which are the main channel for its
community contributions, and review its Principles of Business Conduct
with a view to ‘integrating more explicit CSR principles into the
code’. The group, which puts the value of its brand at €3.2bn ($4.36bn,
£2.18bn) also says it will ‘actively participate in the international
debate on CSR’ to a greater extent than previously.
Brussels-based Fortis said a two-year agenda-setting ‘road map’ would
be useful as a way of guiding its progress. Among other things, Agenda
2009 says the company will analyse its own ‘indirect impact’ on global
warming, including through lending, and make more products available to
poor people.
