Annual Report 2010 - ProCredit Bank

Business Ethics and Environmental Standards 31
• High professional standards: Our employees
take personal responsibility for the quality of
their work and always strive to grow as professionals;
• A high degree of personal commitment: This
goes hand-in-hand with integrity and honesty –
traits which are required of all employees in the
ProCredit group.
These six values represent the backbone of our
corporate culture and are discussed and actively
applied in our day-to-day operations. Moreover,
they are reflected in the ProCredit Code of Conduct,
which transforms the group’s ethical principles
into practical guidelines for all staff. To make
sure that new employees fully understand all of
the principles that have been defined, induction
training includes sessions dedicated to the Code
of Conduct and its significance for all members of
our team. Regular refresher training sessions help
to ensure that employees remain committed to
our high ethical standards and are kept abreast of
new issues and developments which have an ethical
dimension for our institution. These events allow
existing staff to analyse recent case studies
and discuss any grey areas.
Another aspect of ensuring that our institution adheres
to the highest ethical standards is our consistent
application of best practice systems and
procedures to protect ourselves from being used
as a vehicle for money laundering or other illegal
activities such as the financing of terrorist activities.
An important focus here is to “know your customer”,
and, in line with this principle, to carry out
sound reporting and comply with the applicable
regulations. Updated anti-money laundering and
fraud prevention policies are being introduced
across the group to ensure compliance with German
regulatory standards.
We also set standards regarding the impact
of our lending operations on the environment.
ProCredit Bank Serbia has implemented an environmental
management system based on continuous
assessment of the loan portfolio according
to environmental criteria, an in-depth analysis of
all economic activities which potentially involve
environmental risks, and the rejection of loan applications
from enterprises engaged in activities
which are deemed environmentally hazardous
and appear on our institution’s exclusion list. By
incorporating environmental issues into the loan
approval process, ProCredit Bank Serbia is also
able to raise its clients’ overall level of environmental
awareness. We also ensure that requests
for loans are evaluated in terms of the applicant’s
compliance with ethical business practices. No
loans are issued to enterprises or individuals if it
is suspected that they are making use of unsafe or
morally objectionable forms of labour, in particular
child labour.
In addition, ProCredit Bank Serbia is actively involved
in promoting energy efficiency and green
initiatives amongst its staff and its clients. The
bank aims to promote economic development
that is as environmentally sustainable as possible.
ProCredit Bank Serbia introduced a “Leasing
for Energy Efficiency” programme for small
businesses during 2010, under which 134 leasing
contracts had been signed by the end of the year.
In addition, the bank has drawn funds on a credit
line set up by KfW to encourage lending to small
and medium businesses for energy efficiency
projects. The first disbursements under this line
are expected to be made during 2011.
ProCredit Bank staff have been
involved in a number of local
environmental projects in 2010,
including the governmentsupported
“Clean up Serbia”
initiative, in which nearly 500
employees took part, cleaning
river banks, parks and other
public spaces in a common
effort to raise awareness
and bring environmental issues
to the attention of the
general public. The bank
also took an active role in
the “Green Serbia” conference,
held in April in
Belgrade with the support of the Ministry of
Ecology, which was also aimed at promoting environmental
protection. Environmental issues are
an essential component of the training provided
to ProCredit Bank staff at the local, regional and
international level.