Credito Emiliano S p A : CREDEM accelerates on sustainability

PRESS RELEASE

Contacts:

Lucio Dionisi

Media Relations Credem

02 77426202 - 0522 582075 [e-mail] - www.credem.it

25 October 2021

CREDEM ACCELERATES ON SUSTAINABILITY

• a new Sustainability Committee, chaired by the General Manager, has been set up;
• the monitoring of environmental and climate risks has been attributed to the Group Risks Committee;
• the framework for the issuance of sustainable bonds, which will progressively become a fundamental component of the Group's funding, approved;
• first Italian bank with certified personnel enrolled in the register of sustainability managers.

To continue to create long-term value by integrating social and environmental factors into decision-making processes, implementing the principles and recommendations of the new Corporate Governance Code for listed companies and supporting the country's development with sustainable finance tools. These are the goals of the strategy that Credem, one of the main Italian banking Groups and one of the most solid in Europe, will develop in the coming months.

In particular, to enable the concrete pursuit of these objectives, the Group has:

• assigned to the Board of Director the task of promoting dialogue with shareholders and other relevant stakeholders through the definition of a specific policy (stakeholder engagement), in compliance with current legislation;
• set up a new Group Sustainability Committee;
• attributed to the Group Risks Committee the monitoring of environmental and climate

risks and changed the name into Group Risks and Sustainability Committee;

• adopted a reference framework (ESG - framework) to define the process of evaluation, selection and monitoring of eligible assets to which the proceeds of the bonds, issued in the context of sustainability, will be allocated (Green, Social and Sustainable bonds);
• Obtained, first Italian bank, the certification and registration of a person in the register of sustainability managers.

PRESS RELEASE

In detail, as regards Governance, a Group Sustainability Committee has been set up; it will be chaired by the General Manager and will include two members of the Board of Directors and members of the central management. The task of this Committee will be to oversee and support the implementation of the Group's sustainability strategy and the definition of new objectives, with a view to continuous improvement. The collegial body will have a multidisciplinary nature and will be equipped with financial resources to carry out projects, stimulate internal training and co-opt experts to develop a transversal culture of sustainability. Among other objectives, the Committee will have the task of proposing to the Board of Directors the update of the ESG Framework and verifying the suitability of the activities financed in this reference framework.

Furthermore, the Group Risks Committee, which will take the name of the Group Risks and Sustainability Committee, has been assigned, in support of the Board of Directors, the supervision of environmental and climate risks and the analysis of the Sustainability Report. The Chairman and the General Manager of Credem will attend the activities of both Committees with the aim of sharing the strategy and integrating sustainability in the industrial plans in line with the strategic guidelines defined by the Board of Directors, which, following the last renewal took place in 2021, achieved complete gender equality between women and men and recorded a significant decrease in the average age of directors (from 61 years in 2020 to 57 years in 2021).

The Sustainability Area, which reports to the Governance and External Relations Division, coordinated by the Chief Financial Officer, will support both Committees in the implementation of activities and in monitoring the sustainability objectives, including environmental and climate ones, overseeing the project activities through coordination with transversal working groups (Bank and Group companies) also functional to the drafting of the Sustainability Report. Credem was also the first Italian bank to have a certified person enrolled in the register of sustainability managers, as a further guarantee of the quality, skills and rigour that characterize the Group's approach to corporate sustainability.

The Credem Group adopted a framework (ESG Framework) to allow the issuance of bonds whose proceeds will be allocated for the financing-refinancing of activities with a positive impact in terms of environmental and social sustainability, such as loans for renewable energy, ecological transport and environmentally friendly construction. In particular, the selection and management processes of suitable assets are identified, as well as the periodic reporting relating to the correct allocation of the resources collected and the measurement of the impacts produced by the use of the resources themselves. These issues will become a fundamental part of the Group's funding activity. The Framework has been structured and drafted according to the ICMA 2021 guidelines on sustainability (Green Bond Principles and Social Bond Principles) and will be subject to independent assessment by an external party (Second Party Opinion Provider) who will certify its alignment to the aforementioned guidelines and the best practices.

PRESS RELEASE

Finally, in the context of asset management, there is a dedicated project, launched in 2020 by the companies of the Wealth Management Area, which continues its path of complete integration of sustainability criteria within the investment processes for portfolios managed and in customer consultancy. To date, the investment solutions offered by Euromobiliare Advisory SIM, Euromobiliare AM SGR and Credemvita, that use sustainability criteria, manage assets for an amount of approximately 2 billion euros.

"The Group's strategy", commented Lucio Igino Zanon di Valgiurata, Chairman of Credem, "is confirmed to be oriented towards combining sustainability and growth to generate increasing benefits for the country and for all stakeholders. It is with this aim that we need to read the creation of a new Sustainability Committee and the stronger engagement of the Board of Directors, so that environmental and social criteria are increasingly at the center of our choices. Furthermore, the definition of the new framework for sustainable bond issues",added Zanon,"has the aim of facilitating the transparency and quality of our activities for the benefit of investors and the market. Similarly, being the first Italian bank to have certified personnel enrolled in the register of Sustainability Managers is a further guarantee of the quality, skills and rigour with which we are approaching corporate sustainability", concluded Zanon.

The commitment in the area of ​sustainability has allowed the Credem Group to launch a project in 2021 that aims at maximum reduction of CO2 emissions and offsetting the unavoidable ones (Carbon Neutrality) by 2025. The Bank has already reduced its CO2 emissions by 55% in the last three years and has been using, since 2003, 100% of the energy from renewable and certified sources. Furthermore, in 2020, the Group reduced the organisation's internal energy consumption by 11.9%, with a 29.4% decrease in related emissions, and reached 100% of waste disposal through recycling. In 2020, the Group obtained the certification of equal salary and work (Equal Salary) between women and men.

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The Credem Group, one of the main Italian banking institutions and one of the most solid in Europe, is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and has a total business as at 30 June 2021, including total deposits and loans, amounting to almost 115 billion euros.