Sustainability governance
Our sustainability governance
A clear and solid governance is key to achieving our ambitious sustainability strategy

At UniCredit, the Board of Directors approves the Group strategy.
In support of the Board, Corporate Governance, Nomination and Sustainability Committee (CGN&S) is also responsible for supervising sustainability topics within our Group.
CGN&S plays a key role in ensuring that sustainability is fully embedded in the Group's business strategy as an important component of the business model.
The Committee also supervises ethics matters, supported in this task by the Chief Ethics Officer who is in charge of fostering a Do the right thing! culture with all stakeholders, as well as providing Group guidelines on ethical topics.
The Committee monitors the evolution of sustainability, in accordance with international guidelines and principles, monitoring the Group's performance whilst proactively aligning with stakeholders.
At executive level, the Executive Management Committee, chaired by the Group CEO, defines the Group business strategies. A subgroup of the EMC members forms a dedicated Taskforce on ESG strategy. The working group engages selected members of the C suites to provide oversight and strategic guidance on definition and implementation of ESG Strategy.
Group ESG Strategy & Impact Banking, coordinates the work of the ESG Strategy Taskforce and, through the Group Sustainability function, supports the CGN&S Committee in its activities and assists senior management in developing strategies that integrate sustainability considerations into the value creation process and generate long-term benefits for all stakeholders. Moreover it ensures the coordination in the implementation of the Principles for Responsible Banking - UNEP FI.
Group Sustainability has a permanent member in the Group Reputational Risk Committee (GRRC), responsible for the assessment of the reputational risks of initiatives, bank transactions, projects, customers and other business activities.
Click here for more information on the Governance of UniCredit Group.
We have specific policies in place which contribute to human rights topics such as the Code of Conduct, the Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Global Policy, the Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Global Operational Regulation, the Whistleblowing Policy and the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering of Terrorist Financing (CTF) Policy, guided by our Ethics Manifesto as well as our Commitment to Human Rights.
Certain sectors and activities require a specialised approach to ensure that transactional and related risks are properly addressed.
We have developed detailed guidance policies for those sectors relevant to UniCredit that are susceptible to special environmental and social risks.
These policies are inspired by agreements, guidelines and standards (including the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards, the World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines and the principles of the UN Global Compact), as well as other practices widely employed by specific industries.
Policies, statements and commitments | Objective | Download document |
---|---|---|
Arctic and non conventional oil | The policy establishes standards and guidelines that address the risks associated with financing the Arctic and Non-Conventional Oil & Gas Industry | Artic and non conventional Oil & Gas |
Defense/weapons | The policy regulates financial involvement with companies from the defence/armaments industry | Defence/weapons Industry |
Coal Sector | The policy establishes standards and guidelines that address the risks associated with financing the coal sector | Coal Sector |
Mining | The policy establishes standards and guidelines that address the risks associated with financing mining operations | Mining Industry |
Nuclear Energy | The policy regulates financial involvement with and address the challenges posed by the nuclear energy sector | Nuclear Energy |
Water Infrastructure | The policy establishes standards and guidelines that address the risks associated with financing large water infrastructure projects, such as dams | Water Infrastructure Industry (Dams) |
Human Rights | The commitment summarises the Group’s approach to human rights, focusing on some stakeholder categories such as employees, customers, suppliers and communities. It is based on international declarations and conventions, standards, principles, guidelines and recommendations | Human Rights |
Position on 185/90 | Summary of notifications of UniCredit permanent export as per the Italian Parliament Annual Report | 2019 Position Data Italian Law 185/90 |
Modern Slavery | The statement describes the measures taken by UniCredit to mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking, within our businesses or our supply chain, in accordance with section 54 of the United Kingdom's Modern Slavery Act 2015 | 2019 Statement on Modern Slavery Act |
2018 Statement on Modern Slavery Act | ||
2017 Statement on Modern Slavery Act | ||
2016 Statement on Modern Slavery Act | ||
Rainforests | The commitment ensures that our activity does not aid deforestation or forest degradation, unless appropriately mitigated | Rainforests |
Engaging with stakeholders is essential to building trust.
We have an ongoing interaction with sustainability rating agencies, also supporting the increasing requests by investors for greater transparency, more stakeholder engagement and stronger sustainability management.


Bloomberg provides data, scores, analytics, indices, research and news in order to evaluate assets and report on sustainability disclosure and performance in a rapidly evolving economy. Bloomberg's proprietary ESG Scores are data-driven and fully transparent, allowing users to examine both the scoring methodology and the company-reported data underlying each score. Among these ones, ESG Disclosure Scores rate companies on their level of ESG disclosure.


The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) is a modified market capitalisation-weighted index that aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. The 2021 Index comprises 380 companies with a combined market capitalization of USD14 trillion headquartered in 44 countries and regions across 11 sectors.
Unicredit's GEI score is 77.45%.


CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs a global disclosure system on environmental impacts, supporting thousands of companies and others, to measure and manage their risks and opportunities in the environmental areas. It takes the information supplied in its annual reporting process and scores companies based on their journey through disclosure and towards environmental leadership. UniCredit received a A- score which is in the Leadership band. This is higher than the Europe regional average of C, and higher than the Financial services sector average of B.


Created by the global index company FTSE, FTSE4Good is an equity index series that is designed to facilitate investment in companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. FTSE confirms that UniCredit has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, and has satisfied the requirements to become a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series. The results from FTSE4Good ESG Ratings are also positive: UniCredit absolute score has obtained 4.6 out of 5. Moreover, our ICB Supersector Percentile (banking sector) is 90 out of 100.


The Integrated Governance Index (IGI) wants to clearly and concisely express the positioning of companies in relation to the key aspects of sustainability, such as the presence or absence of a sustainability committee, the existence of a remuneration policy linked to ESG parameters or the diversity of the board. The Index therefore wants to photograph the degree of progress in the governance of sustainability or integrated governance. IGI is a quantitative index built on the basis of a questionnaire to the top 100 listed companies in Italy. UniCredit is the first bank in the Top 10 ranking and is included in the Top 3 in the financial sector.


Across 30 U.S. and international locations, ISS is a provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions, market intelligence and fund services, and events and editorial content for institutional investors and corporations, globally. Institutional Shareholder Services group of companies ("ISS") empowers investors and companies to build for long-term and sustainable growth by providing high-quality data, analytics, and insight.
UniCredit is ranked among the 10% of companies within the sector with the highest relative ESG performance.


MSCI Inc. is a provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Indexes with over 1,500 equity and fixed income ESG Indexes designed to help institutional investors more effectively benchmark ESG investment performance and manage, measure and report on ESG mandates. MSCI ESG Ratings aim to measure a company's resilience to long-term, financially relevant ESG risks. Improved management of human capital drives UniCredit's upgrade to 'A' from 'BBB' in Jun 20; the bank continues to lead most international peers in pay practices and board structure.


S&P Global ESG Scores give financial institutions the transparency and flexibility to drill down into three underlying Environmental, Social and Governance & Economic Dimension Scores, and an average of 23 Criteria Scores. A 100-question exploration (on average), guided by 61 industry-specific approaches, informs each criteria score.


Standard Ethics is a European solicited rating agency on ESG issues. It provides rating and gap analysis for companies and countries aspiring to assessing their sustainable and responsible performance in compliance with EU, OECD and UN guidelines.
Standard Ethics has confirmed UniCredit's "EE+" rating, only bank in Italy, for the strong compliance and the ability to manage key reputational risks


Sustainalytics is a global leader in ESG and Corporate Governance research and ratings. Over the last 25 years, Sustainalytics has supported hundreds of the world's foremost investors who incorporate ESG and corporate governance insights into their investment processes. Sustainalytics states that UniCredit is at medium risk (22.1) of experiencing material financial impacts from ESG factors, due to its medium exposure and strong management of material ESG issues. UniCredit is noted for its strong corporate governance performance, which is reducing its overall risk.


Vigeo Eiris is a European ESG rating agency born in France as Vigeo SA in 2002, acquiring local non-financial rating agencies in various European countries. Vigeo Eiris evaluates organisations' integration of social, environmental and governance factors into their strategies, operations and management - with a focus on promoting economic performance, responsible investment and sustainable value creation.
UniCredit scores 64 (Advanced) on Environment, 62 (Advanced) on Social and 53 (Robust) on Governance. Global score is 60 (Advanced)