Vestjysk Bank - ESG profile
Company ESG activities Vestjysk Bank (VJBA) contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, focusing its efforts on goals #5 (Gender Equality), #8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth) and #11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities). VJBA’s work concerning corporate social responsibility has three main focus areas: clients, the local community and employees. As a local and regional bank, VJBA engages in its local communities through the sponsoring of sports, culture and charitable causes. Additionally, and like many other banks, VJBA makes a point of giving young people an opportunity to find employment in the financial sector by offering trainee positions.
Regarding the bank’s efforts concerning sustainability and the environment, it has undertaken a range of initiatives including decreasing energy consumption, pre-sorting waste and limiting transportation through the utilisation of video conferencing. However, no ESG data on these efforts has yet been reported. Likely more focus on ESG after consolidation with DJS It is ABGSC’s view that VJBA is a bank that seeks an ethical relationship with its clients and emphasises product and advisory governance.
Given that the bank has been preoccupied with fighting for its survival in the aftermath of the financial crises 2008-2009, ABGSC views it as natural that VJBA’s current ESG efforts are rather modest and its ESG data remain sparse, relative to peers. However, with VJBA’s consolidation with Den Jyske Sparekasse in the beginning of 2021, the merged bank will become the eighth-largest Danish bank. From this point and onwards, it is expected that the post-merger Vestjysk Bank will allocate more resources to its ESG efforts and the corresponding data reporting.
