Sustainable development and ESG

The military actions on the territory of Ukraine have even more sharpened the urgency of implementation of sustainable development principles in the banking sector.

Under sustainable development TASCOMBANK JSC understands the lasting economic prosperity, less dependent on the use of limited resources and exploitation of the natural environment, more socially inclusive and the one that includes ecological, social and managerial aspects that are closely interrelated.  

Organization of the Сorporate Governance at the Bank is aimed at the sustainable development goals achievement. Current regulatory requirements of the banking activity that the Bank complies with today to a large extent already presuppose achievement of the defined sustainable goals.

The sustainable development goals and principles are being implemented at TASCOMBANK JSC in terms of the environmental, social and governance standards (ESG). 

According to the Bank Development Strategy for 2024-2026, ensurance of understanding, adaptation, implementation and compliance with the ESG requirements is one of the priority goals and tasks of the Bank for 2024-2026.   

ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) is a set of environmental, social and governance principles of organization of the Bank’s activity that define its influence on environment, society and also characterize its transparency and accountability. 

All ESG aspects create the background for estimation of the long-term indicators of the Bank’s stability and sustainable development goals achievement. 

ESG AT TASCOMBANK JSC

TASCOMBANK JSC applies in its activity the best world practices and approaches in terms of  the ESG requirements implementation and has already performed a number of actions aimed at implementation of the environmental, social and governance standards, including investment of the necessary resources into bringing the Bank’s activity in compliance with the best practices of the ESG standards and requirements realization targeted at the sustainable development goals achievement, such as:

  • Key employees of the Bank have completed the modern training course and have received the relevant certificates on the course “Modern ESG agenda for the banking sector” 
  • Bank has approved “The ESG requirements implementation concept”, according to the latter the Bank has organized the project team that works on the ESG requirements implementation (with appointment of the responsible project manager) and has approved the Plan of ESG requirements  implementation for 2024
  • The ESG requirements are being implemented into the Bank’s  internal documents on the constant basis
  • Bank focuses on identification and management of ESG-risks that have the biggest influence onto the Bank’s activity, taking into account the risk-oriented approaches; Bank has defined the spheres of activity of clients with the highest level of ecological and social risks and are being defined the approaches in terms of the ecological and social risks management of clients within the development of the ecological and social management system of the Bank; Bank has also defined the responsible employees and documented the distribution of powers in the part of ecological and social risks management of TASCOMBANK JSC
  • Bank performs self-assessment of the Bank’s activity compliance with the ESG requirements and is elaborating the criteria for assessment of clients compliance with the ESG requirements
  • TASCOMBANK JSC has selected and approved the ESG-goals and initiatives list for 2024-2025, selected goals are also planned to be included into the Development Strategy of the Bank and their implementation into activity of the Bank has already started in terms of 3 main components: Environmental, Social and Governance
  • The Bank has elaborated the Plan of trainings in order to inform and increase awareness of the TASCOMBANK JSC about ESG-standards and requirements and the series of relevant training events is being realized according to the Training Plan
  • ESG manager and members of the working group of ESG project are constantly improving their professional level of knowledge in terms of ESG-requirements implementation
  • According to the Plan of ESG project, the Bank is going to consider the opportunity of ESG certification of its activity according to the ESG requirements by the relevant certified companies

To sum up, it is necessary to mark that Bank’s management and key employees of the Bank have clear understanding of the influence of organization onto environment and rationally utilize entrusted them natural resources (Environmental).

Bank builds socially responsible relationship with his employees, clients, representatives of business, state and local communities. In its activity, Bank complies with the rules of transparent notification of clients and partners about conditions of the banking products and services that Bank offers and provides at the financial services market as well as about other terms and conditions of cooperation. While making managerial decisions, the Bank first of all takes into consideration the interests of Bank’s clients (Social).

The Bank has arranged its business activity and internal processes so that all managerial decisions are taken maximum effectively, transparently, responsibly and legally and also in compliance with the goals defined by the ESG requirements. The Bank has the three level system of the internal control that presupposes effective functioning of the collective governance bodies, risk management units, compliance and internal audit services (Governance).

In order to estimate the influence of the environmental, social and governance factors onto long-term sustainability, the Bank continues to follow and implement ESG standards and requirements in its activity at the financial market and to take them into account in corporate governance by analyzing and complying with the relevant changes in the regulatory requirements in terms of the road map on sustainable finance development in Ukraine, approved by the National Bank of Ukraine. 

KEY ESG GOALS

ESG

Sustainable Development Goals

Environmental

  • Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

    Water supply to population is one of the priority tasks of Ukraine. Despite the fact that Ukraine has its own internal water resources, the matter of its availability to 100% of its population in the cities and villages remains important, as well as its purification, decrease of misbalance between dry areas of the south and other more water-saturated territories of the north and north-west of the country, minimization and elimination of waste and dangerous substances discharge, increase  of water resources use effectiveness and increase of recurrent water use percentage. Realization of such actions is possible on condition of pro-active support of authorities at all levels and active cooperation of all legal entities in order to create and use modern, innovative, environmentally friendly objects in the sphere of water supply and water disposal. 

  • Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

    Ukrainian economy, as well as the world economy, depends considerably on fossil fuel, the latter is the resource of energy and at the same time the cause of occurrence of the severe climate change. Ukraine has a considerable potential of energy extraction from the renewable sources of energy, such as wind energy, solar energy, hydropower energy, bioenergy, geothermal energy and environmental energy. Increase of the part of energy from the renewable sources in the national energy balance is one of the priority tasks.

    Among other tasks there are infrastructure and network modernization and extension by means of the use of the innovative and modern technologies that can provide continuous, cheap and publicly available energy by 2030. Decrease of the energy intensity of the economy and increase of the energy efficiency are the trends the business is oriented at these days. 

    Thus, Goal 7 is aimed at realization of such directions as modernization of the energy infrastructure and energy efficiency increase.

     
    Current TASCOMBANK initiative to achieve the goal: 

    • Joining of the Bank to the Memorandum on the crediting of projects on energy infrastructure renewal. Learn more

  • Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

    Considerable part of the world population consumes so little that it is not enough even to satisfy their basic needs. Decrease of food waste and consumption per capita at the level of the retail trade has a very important meaning in terms of more effective production and supply chain creation. This can promote the food security and transition to more resource efficient economy.  


    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: to decrease the volume of created waste and to increase the volume of its processing and reuse based on the innovative technologies and production. 

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal: 
    Project “Paperless”
    Electronic documents circulation

  • Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

    Goal 13 is related with the struggle for the comfortable living conditions of people. Climate change occurs due to the increase of the average temperature at the Planet and, thus, it leads to the appearance of extreme weather conditions, increase of the sea level and ocean oxidation. The aim of this goal is to take urgent actions to prevent climate change and its consequences. 

    The indicator that measures the progress of the national goal achievement in Ukraine is “Volume of greenhouse gas emissions”, it is defined in per cent in comparison to the level of 1990. The largest greenhouse gas (GHG) producers in Ukraine are the following sectors of economy: energy industry, agriculture, land use, forestry, industry and waste. GHG emissions in the energy industry are being produced in the result of the fuel combustion during the electricity and heating production. Rapid development of the agriculture, growth of the area occupied by arable land and growth of volume of mineral and organic fertilizers use as well as the change of agricultural practices and change of agricultural crops that are traditionally grown by the farms also influence the GHG emissions production.

    Decrease of GHG emissions is the key element of achievement of the Goal 13. So, that is why we have to adapt our energy sector, industry, transport, agriculture and forestry to decrease the GHG emissions today and to ensure the transition onto so-called net-zero emissions in the second part of this century. 

    On the other side, we all have to adapt to the expected consequences of the climate change. 

  • Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

    This goal is aimed at reduction of pollution of the marine environment and coastal ecosystem, sustainable use and protection of the marine environment and coastal ecosystem, increase of their resistance and renewal, effective regulation of the marine biological resources extraction.

  • Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

    This goal is being realized in order to protect, restore and sustainably use the terrestrial and internal fresh-water ecosystems, to ensure the sustainable forest management, to prevent desertification, to restore exhausted lands and ground and to protect the mountain ecosystems.

Social

  • Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

    Decrease of poverty scope is one of the key challenges of the world society. If the person has to live for less than 1,9 USD per day, he/she lives below the extreme poverty line and has a risk to be in the social alienation.


    Providing equal rights of access to the basic resources, support of socially vulnerable groups of population and support of communities who suffer from the military conflicts and natural disasters, are aimed at overcoming of poverty in all of its forms. 

    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: to increase the support of socially-vulnerable groups of population by means of targeted programs of support via development of relevant banking products and services.

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal: 

    • Participation of the Bank in the state programs “yePidtrymka”, “yeOselya” and “yeVidnovlennya”
    • Cooperation with the Pension Fund of Ukraine
    • Incorporation of the product “Study loan” for individuals. Learn more about the product
    • Cooperation with the charity fund “Children of heroes” (as the General partner of Odesa International Cinema Festival 2024) in terms of support of the children-orphans of the Ukrainian heroes (donation of the 25% of the tickets price for help and support of children-orphans). Learn more

  • Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

    Ensuring food security, elimination of all forms of hunger and providing access to the nutritious foods in sufficient amount during the whole year is the main challenge in Sustainable Development Goal 2 achievement. 

    Reachability vector is directed at three mutually connected landmarks, such as availability of the balanced nutrition, productivity of the agriculture and food production. 

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Credit granting to companies that produce and supply foods. 

  • Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

    Health is the most important resource of every human being. Currently, the world is overcoming the global health crisis — COVID-19. The sustainable development goals are aimed at the mortality level decrease, stop of epidemiсs, providing access to the health security services as well as access to the main medicines and vaccines for all.
     
    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: to promote and support (including by means of financing of relevant projects) the healthy way of living, to support providing general and highly qualified vaccination of population (employees of the Bank and members of their families) with the use of the innovative vaccines, to decrease spread of smoking among population by means of communication of information about negative consequences of smoking via modern innovative communication channels.

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Blood donation program. Learn more
    • Medical insurance and medical examinations
    • Pre-medical care trainings. Learn more
    • Sports promotion: support of organization of Soccer Championship of Ukraine and support of the Ukrainian Soccer Team at the European Championship and World Championship; support of the Ukrainian junior tournament in mini-football. Learn more

  • Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

    Quality of education influences the level of society well-being, life-long study opportunities of every human being renews capital of replies to nowadays challenges. Equal access to affordable professional training, prevention of gender and material differences and general accessibility of education is exact landmark for business on its way to achievement of the sustainable development goals. 

    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: financing of projects on creation of modern study opportunities, including inclusion, based onto innovative approaches; providing availability of professional education by means of development of the targeted programs/ relevant banking products that finance obtaining of education; increase of knowledge level and relevant skills in terms of receiving of the decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities. 


    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Training course “Young master of finance” for Private banking clients. Learn more
    • External and internal trainings for Bank employees.
    • Project “Cooperation with the higher educational establishments”. Learn more
    • Participation in the NBU events for schoolchildren and students: “Save for dream” and “Global Money Week”. Learn more
    • Holding of trainings on financial literacy for school children and students in the regions. Learn more

  • Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

    Proper observance of women rights  has a crucial meaning for development of prosperous society. Investments into gender equality contribute to decrease of the difference between salary of men and women and help to prevent appearance of stop factors for business economic growth.   


    Gender equality should not be exclusively perceived as a female matter as it is a matter that requires mutual cooperation from both men and women in practical and principal issues. 

  • Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

    Economic growth and well-being of population is an important landmark for Sustainable Development Goals Achievement. Ukraine has shown noticeable and important improvements in this respect during the last decade. But the matter of improvement of labor productivity, use of technological innovations in the production process, development of small and medium entrepreneurship, increase of their efficiency, decrease of gender inequality  in terms of income and providing proper labour conditions and equal opportunities regardless sex, age, nationality, etc. One of the state priorities is the increase of the Ukrainian rating in terms of business doing simplicity.

    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: financing of projects aimed at increase of production effectiveness based on the sustainable development principles and onto development of the highly technological and competitive production. Increase of the level of employment of population. Decrease of percentage of unemployed young specialists who do not work, do not study and do not obtain the professional skills. Contributing to creation of reliable and safe conditions of labour for all workers by means of use of innovative technologies in the sphere of labour and industrial security.

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Employment of students who earlier underwent their practice at TASCOMBANK 
    • Joining to the Charter of financial inclusion and veterans’ reintegration. Learn more
    • Realization of the innovative fintech projects

Governance

  • Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

    Development of the infrastructure and innovations is a prerequisite of the economic progress. Technological progress ensures the solution of the ecological and economic problems and is able to influence the social factors. The major priorities are the development of the innovative ecosystems, information and telecommunication technologies (especially their use in agro-industrial complex, energy sector, transport and industry), highly technological machine-building, creation of the new materials, development of the pharmaceutical and bioengineering industries.

    TASCOMBANK tasks within the goal: contributing to the development of the high-quality, reliable, sustainable and available infrastructure that is based on the use of the innovative technologies, including ecologically clean types of transport and relevant network and infrastructure. Providing availability of the road transport infrastructure that is based on the use of innovative technologies, by means of increase of the forms of involvement of Bank into different infrastructure projects. To contribute to the speedy development of high- and medium-high technological sectors of processing industry that are formed based onto chains “education – science – production” and cluster approach in terms of such directions: development of the innovative ecosystem; development of information and communication technologies in agrо-industrial complex, energy sector, transport and industry; highly-technological machine building; creation of new materials; development of the pharmaceutical and bioengineering industries. Contributing to creation of financial and institutional systems (innovative infrastructure) that provide development of the scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) developments. Contributing to Internet availability, especially in the rural area.

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • The Credit Policy of the Bank defines as one of its priority streams for crediting also such industries:
      - Energy sector;
      - Production, processing industries;
      - Infrastructure development and transport services;
      - Credit granting according to the governmental programs.
    • Credit granting to enterprises of the real sector of economy that contribute to:
      - development of the ecologically clean types of transport and relevant network and infrastructure
      - development of the road and transport infrastructure;
      - development of high- and medium-high technological sectors of processing industry

  • Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

    1% of the richest people of the world control 40% of the total world income when at the same time the half of the poorest people of the world use not more than 1% of the total world income.

    Goal 10 is cross-sectoral and is very important taking into consideration its influence onto other Sustainable Development Goals, such as elimination of poverty, decent work and economic growth.

    High level of inequality is mainly connected with disproportion between village and city population, discrimination according to sex or ethnic origin, inequality between indigenous population and migrants, inclusion. 

  • Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

    Goal 11 is aimed at improvement of approaches into city building, cities and communities’ management and development, taking into account principles of inclusion, security and sustainability, as well as prevention of possible risks of decrease of the population life quality. 

    Quick urbanization leads to the ineffective distribution and use of resources, resulting into increase of excessive load onto environment. Enterprises that work into cities and contribute to the general economic growth have the opportunity to support development of the infrastructure by participating into cities and communities development strategies and by the use of their opportunities and knowledge to find innovative and economically effective decisions for complex, interdisciplinary matters of cities sustainability.  

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Participation of the Bank into the state program “yeOselya”, “Available mortgage7”. Learn more
    • Bank’s investment into building of city infrastructure objects.
    • Crediting of building companies that build multi-apartment buildings. Learn more

  • Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

    One of the most important priorities of the sustainable development is creation of peaceful, just and comprehensive societies that provide equal access to justice, societies that are being built based on respect of the human rights, rule of law, proper management as well as transparent, effective and responsible institutes. 

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • For restoration of territories that suffered from conflict/ war, a special banking product has been realized within the framework of the program “yeVidnovlennya”. Learn more details about the program

  • Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

    Sustainable development goals can be achieved only on condition of true compliance with the principles of partnership and cooperation.

    Goal 17 is aimed at achievement of partnership in the financial, technological and trading sector as well as onto cooperation between state and private sector. 

    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal: to mobilize additional financial resources by means of attraction of the investments of foreign and local investors; develop partner relationship of the authorities and business for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals; to develop partnership with international organizations that contribute to implementation of the sustainable development principles and preparation of the Bank to participation into international investment programs and programs of post-war renewal. 


    Current TASCOMBANK initiatives to achieve the goal:

    • Cooperation with “Dia” portal (mutual events as well as authorization of clients by means of Dia)
    • Participation in the program “PowerBanking” and “BankID”. Learn more
    • Increase of financial literacy level of the growing generations (educational and training events for schoolchildren and students). Learn more
    • Support of the development of the Ukrainian culture and modern art (contributing to the organization of tour of the Ukrainian music band “Bez obmezhen’”). Learn more
    • Partnership with Odesa International Cinema Festival 2024. Learn more
check mark – ESG goals selected by TASCOMBANK JSC for the period 2024-2025