Corporate social responsibility

As part of the achievement of its mission which is to improve the quality of life of its customers by offering them financial products and services that meet their expectations and in an advantageous manner, Coris Bank International Senegal (CBI SN) impacts society and the environment through the decisions it makes and the activities it carries out. Aware of this state of affairs, CBI SN has decided to fully assume this situation by implementing a structured approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in order to limit its negative impacts and improve its positive impacts on its stakeholders and on sustainable development.

1. CSR policy

The CSR approach is formalized through a CSR Policy which reflects CBI SN’s ambitions in terms of CSR. These ambitions are as follows:

  • Be a Bank demonstrating ethics and integrity;
  • Be a Bank protecting the interests of its customers;
  • To be a bank working in favor of the environment and the climate;
  • To be a Bank ensuring the full development of its staff;
  • To be a Bank supporting the development of its community.
Each of its ambitions is broken down into commitments that will be the subject of initiatives aimed at achieving the desired objectives.

This Policy, established on the basis of the ISO 26000 international standard, is intended to be the formal framework of CBI SN’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations Organization in 2015.

2. Sustainable finance

Coris Bank International Senegal integrates environmental, social and climate concerns

2.1 - Environmental and Social Management System

As a financial intermediary, Coris Bank International Senegal does not directly implement projects, but ensures through its Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) that the projects carried out thanks to its financing have the minimum negative impacts on the environment and on society.

2.1.1 - Environmental and social standards

This is a set of criteria that Coris Bank International SA customers are required to respect throughout the life of the financing in terms of identifying and managing environmental and social risks and impacts. For the evaluation of projects that are the subject of a request for financing, Coris Bank International Senegal applies the environmental and social performance standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)

2.1.2 - Exclusion list

Coris Bank International SA undertakes not to carry out financing operations in the sectors of activity appearing on the exclusion list. This is a list where are mentioned all the activities that Coris Bank International Senegal deems unacceptable, both environmentally and socially and therefore which are not eligible for its financing.

2.1.3 - Environmental and social risk categorization system

Depending on the level of environmental and social risk, eligible applications are classified into one of the following environmental and social categories:
Category Risk level
A
Activities likely to have significant adverse environmental and social impacts which, individually or collectively, may be varied, irreversible or unprecedented
B
Activities likely to have limited adverse environmental and social impacts which, individually or collectively, are few in number, usually site-specific, largely reversible and easily addressed through mitigation measures
C
Activities likely to have low or minimal environmental and social impacts
Categorization helps to determine the most appropriate due diligence to perform.

2.1.4 - Environmental and social risk management process

The purpose of the environmental and social risk management process is to ensure that the activities financed by Coris Bank International Senegal induce a minimum of negative impacts on the environment and on the populations. It allows appropriate decision-making by internal credit-granting bodies.

It is initiated upon receipt of a funding request and includes the following steps:

  • Preliminary filtering;
  • Environmental and social categorization;
  • Environmental and social due diligence;
  • Decision-making, notification to the client and formalization of guarantees;
  • Monitoring of environmental and social performance;
  • Management of violations of environmental and social requirements.

2.1.5 - Settlement of environmental and social grievances

Any stakeholder (individual, group of individuals, community, local authority, partner, NGO, etc.) believing that they have suffered harm or are aware of harm suffered or even considering harm as plausible during the implementation of a funded project by Coris Bank International SA may formulate grievances through the following channels:

2.2 – Climate finance

The vision of Coris Bank International Senegal in terms of climate finance is as follows: “The bank of reference in Senegal for the financing of the green, inclusive, low-carbon and climate-resilient economic transition”

In order to support the implementation of government policy reflected in national climate priorities and translated into the country program of the Green Climate Fund, Coris Bank International Senegal intends to contribute to the financing of national climate priorities. With this in mind, the bank has developed a climate finance strategy to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by climate change for the structural transformation of the fundamentals of the national economy on a sustainable basis.

The climate finance strategy structured around four (4) priority strategic areas:
  • Mobilization of appropriate financing for climate action;
  • Financing green, inclusive, low-emission and climate-resilient economic transition;
  • Development of innovative financial instruments and digital transformation of processes, products and services;
  • Improved environmental and climate governance.

2.3 – Projects and Programs

Information on projects and programs funded by the Green Climate Fund

3. Publications