2020 Financial and ESG Report of the Bank Millennium Group available online as one of the first on the market

The Bank Millennium Group has published online the financial and non-financial Environment Social Governance (ESG) report for 2020. The ESG report, which is the fifteenth annual non-financial report of the Bank Millennium Group, presents, among others, its activities related to the pandemic, protection of the environment and climate and barrier-free banking. In the following years, these reports will take into account new EU regulations on sustainable financing.

Environment Social Governance (ESG) issues, which are an integral part of the Group’s business strategy. The 2020 ESG Report of the Bank Millennium Group is already the fifteenth annual non-financial report published by the Group. This year’s edition devotes special attention to the Bank’s activities in relation to the pandemic, availability of products and services and protection of the environment and climate.

Activities in the age of coronavirus

The year 2020 was marked by the pandemic and economic crisis. The Bank took many measures to protect the health of its employees, clients and local communities, while making sure that it maintained its operating capacity and managed its clients’ funds without any interruption. It immediately introduced organizational changes and special procedures to ensure availability of services and full operating capacity of the bank. It also took care of its customers, among others by launching a number of aid programs utilizing the Bank’s electronic channels. The Bank Millennium Foundation and Bank Millennium joined the fight against the coronavirus already in April, by donating PLN 500,000 to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which developed the first Polish tests for SARS-CoV-2. The tests have entered mass production and the Institute is conducting further research and development of next-generation tests.

Barrier-free banking

The barrier-free banking concept, in which products and services are accessible to everyone without any exception, is not just one of the ESG ideas, but a whole philosophy of the organization and an important part of the Bank’s business strategy. For many years now, Bank Millennium has been working on removing infrastructural, digital and physical barriers in access to financial and non-financial services by introducing solutions based on cutting-edge technologies. In 2020, despite the difficult epidemic conditions, Bank Millennium launched many new functionalities in its Internet banking solution, mobile application and in branches. As a result, the already extensive digital offer was supplemented by innovative tools, including ones based on the open banking concept, offering customers a remote, secure and convenient way of using services and products. The pandemic and the intensive educational activities focused on the customers who are less familiar with technology, in particular through great efforts of branch employees, caused the Bank’s gradually developed digital services to achieve great popularity (2.05 million active electronic banking customers). Bank Millennium extends the barrier-free community concept also to other initiatives. In 2020, for the second successive year, during the Millennium Docs Against Gravity documentary film festival sponsored by the Bank, selected films were available with audio description and with a voiceover version, which made it easier for people with vision impairments to access the world of culture.

Environment and climate

Climate change, in addition to protection of life and health, is one of the most defining challenges of this century, and requires urgent and unprecedented measures. Bank Millennium is carefully observing the activities of the European Union and understands the role that institutions in the banking sector should play in the movement towards low-emission and climate-resilient economy. However the idea of protecting the natural environment and climate has accompanied the Bank Millennium Group for a long time. For a decade now, Bank Millennium has monitored and reported on its own greenhouse gas emissions and has worked on reducing them. In the ranking of “Climate Leaders Poland 2021” published by Forbes in 2020, Bank Millennium was the highest-ranked bank, taking the second place among Polish companies in the ranking in terms of reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions. It is worth noting that historically, Bank Millennium’s exposure to the coal mining and coal-fired power generation sector was significantly lower than the banking sector average. In 2020, the Bank Millennium Group’s exposure to the coal mining and coal-fired power generation sector represented 2.2% of its corporate portfolio (down from 2.5% in 2019) and 0.6% of the Group’s total portfolio (down from 0.7% in 2019).

The consolidated annual report of the Bank Millennium Group for 2020 was published on February 22, 2021. The full report in online version is available on our website at:

https://raportroczny.bankmillennium.pl/2020/en/

Author:

Bank Millennium Group

Last Updated on March 23, 2021 by Karolina Ampulska