Best Social Impact Bank Award in Europe for the 3rd year
Friday 02 September 2022
UniCredit is proud to be recognised by CFI.co magazine as the Best Social Impact Bank in Europe for the third year running, underlining our continued commitment to having a positive social impact on all our communities and our Purpose of Empowering them to Progress.
UniCredit has been named by Capital Finance International magazine (CFI.co) as the Best Social Impact Bank in Europe in 2022. For the third year in a row, the magazine has selected UniCredit as the leading institution for making a strong contribution towards positive social impact to support the real economy across Europe.
The judges highlighted UniCredit's Group-wide commitment to ESG driven by shared principles, strong collaboration and synergies. The launch of UniCredit’s first Retail Social Bond in September 2021 was also mentioned. The proceeds of the bond have so far supported 51 social impact initiatives in Italy with 98% of the beneficiary organisations having either almost achieved, fully achieved or exceeded their social objectives.
Commenting on the award, Fiona Melrose, Head of Group Strategy & ESG, said: "We are extremely proud to once again be acknowledged by CFI as the Best Social Impact Bank in Europe. We know that banks have an important social function that goes far beyond lending, and are committed to leading by example, supporting our clients and communities in making meaningful progress towards a more sustainable, inclusive and fair society. ESG is therefore central to our corporate culture. We have set ambitious ESG targets for all areas of our business under our strategic plan and continue to work hard to increase our social impact and support to communities everywhere we operate.”
In addition, UniCredit was praised for its financial education initiatives that reached a total of 123,522 beneficiaries in 2021, including young people, students, vulnerable individuals, small enterprises, start-ups and social organisations. Meanwhile our financial and ESG awareness initiatives reached a further 206,111 beneficiaries, more than 203,000 of whom were women.
UniCredit’s social initiatives also include the activities of the UniCredit Foundation, which in 2021 supported 878,000 beneficiaries and 358 dedicated projects as well as providing EUR 10 million in donations and funding 120 scholarships.
We continue to support the social ecosystem and initiatives that help finance our communities to progress, distributing more than EUR 2.5 billion in the first half of 2022 towards this, including more than EUR 420 million of inclusive finance lending, more than EUR 235 million of impact financing and social housing lending, and around EUR 1.9 billion of high social impact lending.
Furthermore, our educational initiatives have in 1H 2022 reached a total of around 103,000 beneficiaries thanks to 75 dedicated financial education initiatives and a further around 36,000 beneficiaries through 28 financial and ESG awareness initiatives.
We also continue to support social entrepreneurs and projects with a measurable social impact across our countries, distributing more than EUR 93 million in microcredit and impact financing by the end of 1H 2022.
For more information, please see our Social Results 2021 – Social Impact and UniCredit Foundation report