Sustainability Principles

Yapı Kredi is aware that sustainability issues pose serious threats for our world, our business, our stakeholders and our communities. That is why we strive to leave future generations a more livable world. We manage our responsibilities on sustainability issues with a holistic approach that combines environmental, economic and social dimensions within our spheres of influence. Supporting all our stakeholders in their sustainability journeys as well as focusing on our own sustainability efforts are the key elements of our sustainability strategy.

Our sustainability journey started with the publication of our first sustainability report in 2011. Our sustainability efforts gained momentum with the launch of the BIST Sustainability Index in 2014. In the same year, we further accelerated our efforts by establishing our Sustainability Committee, which is responsible for sustainability issues in different areas.

While developing our corporate policy and strategy for sustainability, we closely follow national and international developments, and take part in various national and international initiatives. To that end, we took a major step by becoming a founding signatory of the “Global Compact Turkey Declaration on Sustainable Finance'' in 2017. In doing so, we demonstrated our commitment to managing the environmental and social impacts arising from our operational activities as well as those arising from our lending activities.

In 2019, we became one of the founding signatories of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking (UN PRB) and took our place among banks that lead sustainability. We measure our impact in the field of sustainable development in line with these principles, play an active role in the working groups of the initiative, and take actions to manage our impact. Principles of Responsible Banking, which offer a comprehensive framework for the sustainable banking landscape of the future, are grouped under six headings; “Alignment,” “Impact & Target Setting,” “Clients & Customers,” “Stakeholders,” “Governance & Culture,” and “Transparency & Accountability.” The principles aim to increase the contribution of the banking sector to social development in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Banks measure the impact of their activities in line with these principles, which require them to take action for sustainable development, as they set targets and report their progress on an annual basis.

We started our integrated reporting process in 2020 and published our first integrated report in 2021 for transparent and accurate communication with all our stakeholders, and especially with our shareholders, investors, customers, colleagues and non-governmental organizations. In this process, we aim to better meet the expectations and needs of our stakeholders, and introduce them to our business strategy that is based on sustainable growth. Accordingly, we have prepared our report in line with the Integrated Reporting Framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. We also demonstrated the transparency of our processes by receiving a statement of assurance from an independent audit firm for the 33 economic, social and environmental indicators in our report. We became a member of the Integrated Reporting Network Turkey (ERTA) in May 2020 to contribute to the expansion of integrated thinking and sharing of integrated reporting experiences in Turkey.

In January 2021, we became an official supporter of the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). We also joined the Science Based Targets Initiative in order to commit to reducing our emissions. Our emission reduction targets are publicly announced after they are validated by the international Science Based Targets Initiative. In doing so, we play an active role in the fight against the climate crisis , and contribute to the environment in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We participate in the “Climate Change” and “Water Security” programs of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world's largest environmental reporting platform. Accordingly, we transparently share our strategies, targets and activities for water security and combating the climate crisis with all of our stakeholders on an annual basis.

In 2022, we achieved an AA rating in the MSCI ESG Ratings, which measures companies' resilience to long-term environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. This put us in the class of “Leaders,” making us the only financial institution in Turkey to have received an AA rating. We managed to be listed in “The Sustainability Yearbook 2022,” issued under the scope of S&P Global’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment,

As a member of the Environmental Board of Koç Group, made up of environmental managers of Koç Group companies, we develop our strategies and policies at the group level. To serve this end, we implement the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System at our Head Office and domestic subsidiaries. We measure and report the greenhouse gas emissions from all our operations in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 14064 International Standard for GHG Emissions Inventories and Verification.

We have practices in place to reduce the amount of waste arising from our operations and internal use. We have been informing both our employees and our customers through various communication channels for many years, especially about paper and plastic waste, and we aim to minimize our environmental impact in this area. Thanks to our pioneering approaches in digital banking and the changes in the legislation, we have digitalized many services that require high paper consumption, which has contributed to our efforts in this area.

We were granted Zero Waste Certificates from the Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization for our Yapı Kredi Banking Base and Head Office. As part of the Zero Waste Project, in which we contribute to a sustainable world, we carry out efforts for efficient use of limited natural resources, prevention of waste, separation of waste at source, and waste reduction at all Yapı Kredi facilities.

As an institution that has carried out significant efforts for gender equality for many years and led the sector in women's employment, we were listed in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) in 2021 and 2022. By being listed in the index for the first time, we became one of the five companies from Turkey to be listed in the index. We also led the sector by taking part in various national and international initiatives such as the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and the Business Against Domestic Violence Project.

In line with the global leadership of our principal shareholder Koç Holding in the UN Women Generation Equality Forum, we have joined Koç Group's gender equality movement in technology and innovation and made our commitments. We act in line with our responsibility of being a role model for others by taking an uncompromising stance to protect women's rights and ensure gender equality. We believe that we are investing in the future of our country with our approach to gender equality.

By providing financial support to green projects and investments, we make one of the most fundamental long-term contributions to sustainability. We offer financial solutions to sustainable development problems with various products and services, such as sustainability bonds, renewable energy and energy efficiency loans, women entrepreneur loans and agriculture loans.

Thanks to our efforts in the field of sustainability, we are included in the BIST Sustainability and Corporate Governance Indices, as well as FTSE Russell's FTSE4Good Emerging Index, which measures the environmental, social and corporate governance performances of companies.

We strictly adhere to the roadmap we have created to fulfill our commitments to international sustainability initiatives. Accordingly, increasing the variety and volume of our sustainable financial products is one of our key goals.

Our key priorities also include raising awareness on this issue to ensure a healthy sustainability transformation for our customers and financing this transformation. In line with our vision of benefiting society, which has been one of our basic building blocks since day one, we aim to lead social change by raising awareness of individuals among all our stakeholders.