OFFERING FINANCIAL PRODUCTS ON FAIR TERMS
As mentioned above, bank assets relating to both its lending and its financial and capital market transactions must comply with ethical, sustainable criteria. Clients can therefore invest their money in good faith in all the on-balance-sheet products that the bank offers in various forms of savings, fixed-term and time deposits with a term of up to ten years. This covers almost everything a client could wish for. Terms are calculated fairly and are at the top end of the average in the competitive environment. However, customers must also be fair and not expect phenomenally high interest rates for their deposits.
'Working towards tomorrow today' – this is the slogan we use to advertise our sustainability fund, which we established together with the other church cooperative banks in Germany and the capital investment company Union Investment. A diversified fund was set up back in 1990 under the name of KUC Fund. It has since been absorbed into the KCD Union Sustainable fund family established by the cooperative banks for the church and social welfare organisations Caritas and Diakonie with the KCD Union Equities and KCD Union Bouds funds in 2001. With the fund concepts, we developed realistic, practical procedures for selecting securities that take into account the central requirements of Christian social teaching, as well as offering investors attractive opportunities for increasing the value of their portfolios. Sustainability is established in a multi-tier selection process, focusing on social and environmental analysis. First, the investment universe is defined by region and currency. When selecting the investment universe, imug analyses around 2800 companies in accordance with clearly defined exclusion criteria as well as negative and positive criteria. We exclude any companies that produce alcohol or tobacco products, manufacture arms and military products or violate the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO). We also do not allow gambling game providers to join our fund.
The exclusion criteria also include pornography, abortion, child labour, systematic corruption and cluster munitions. The analysis company Lipper has confirmed that investment in the KCD Union Sustainable MIX is also worthwhile in terms of financial returns, and that the fund is one of the best.
In addition to the KCD Union Sustainability funds, we also actively offer funds from Swiss sustainability experts Sarasin. We have also launched the INVESCO fund for foundations, which caters for institutional customers and also draws on advice from imug regarding sustainability management. It has been awarded the 'Diversified Fund of the Year' award by EcoReporter several times. Our range of microfinance funds places special emphasis on promoting development and fighting poverty in developing and transforming countries and consists of the Dual Return Funds Vision Microfinance and responsAbility Microfinance Fund. We have also launched two funds for institutional, professional investors in Luxembourg: Dual Return Funds Vision Microfinance and responsAbility Microfinance Fund. The special feature of these funds is that they are managed by BIB. Each microfinance institute (MFI) is first visited by bank employees and then subjected to due diligence in relation to financial and social sustainability before being included in the fund. The bank and its two KCD Microfinance funds joined the Smart Campaign in 2011, and therefore endorse the Client Protection Principles (CPP) designed as a safeguard for end users of microfinance products. BIB has placed part of its loans to microfinance institutes within this fund and has also contributed a major sum to the fund itself.
THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF THE SMART CAMPAIGN
Protecting consumers by means of:
As mentioned above, bank assets relating to both its lending and its financial and capital market transactions must comply with ethical, sustainable criteria. Clients can therefore invest their money in good faith in all the on-balance-sheet products that the bank offers in various forms of savings, fixed-term and time deposits with a term of up to ten years. This covers almost everything a client could wish for. Terms are calculated fairly and are at the top end of the average in the competitive environment. However, customers must also be fair and not expect phenomenally high interest rates for their deposits.
'Working towards tomorrow today' – this is the slogan we use to advertise our sustainability fund, which we established together with the other church cooperative banks in Germany and the capital investment company Union Investment. A diversified fund was set up back in 1990 under the name of KUC Fund. It has since been absorbed into the KCD Union Sustainable fund family established by the cooperative banks for the church and social welfare organisations Caritas and Diakonie with the KCD Union Equities and KCD Union Bouds funds in 2001. With the fund concepts, we developed realistic, practical procedures for selecting securities that take into account the central requirements of Christian social teaching, as well as offering investors attractive opportunities for increasing the value of their portfolios. Sustainability is established in a multi-tier selection process, focusing on social and environmental analysis. First, the investment universe is defined by region and currency. When selecting the investment universe, imug analyses around 2800 companies in accordance with clearly defined exclusion criteria as well as negative and positive criteria. We exclude any companies that produce alcohol or tobacco products, manufacture arms and military products or violate the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO). We also do not allow gambling game providers to join our fund.
The exclusion criteria also include pornography, abortion, child labour, systematic corruption and cluster munitions. The analysis company Lipper has confirmed that investment in the KCD Union Sustainable MIX is also worthwhile in terms of financial returns, and that the fund is one of the best.
In addition to the KCD Union Sustainability funds, we also actively offer funds from Swiss sustainability experts Sarasin. We have also launched the INVESCO fund for foundations, which caters for institutional customers and also draws on advice from imug regarding sustainability management. It has been awarded the 'Diversified Fund of the Year' award by EcoReporter several times. Our range of microfinance funds places special emphasis on promoting development and fighting poverty in developing and transforming countries and consists of the Dual Return Funds Vision Microfinance and responsAbility Microfinance Fund. We have also launched two funds for institutional, professional investors in Luxembourg: Dual Return Funds Vision Microfinance and responsAbility Microfinance Fund. The special feature of these funds is that they are managed by BIB. Each microfinance institute (MFI) is first visited by bank employees and then subjected to due diligence in relation to financial and social sustainability before being included in the fund. The bank and its two KCD Microfinance funds joined the Smart Campaign in 2011, and therefore endorse the Client Protection Principles (CPP) designed as a safeguard for end users of microfinance products. BIB has placed part of its loans to microfinance institutes within this fund and has also contributed a major sum to the fund itself.
THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF THE SMART CAMPAIGN
Protecting consumers by means of:
- Avoiding over-indebtedness
- Transparent and responsible pricing
- Appropriate collection practices
- Ethical staff behaviour
- Mechanisms for redress of grievances
- Privacy of client data