Speaking at the II edition of the Angola Banking Conference, which took place this Wednesday under the theme "Challenges, Trends and Opportunities of Banking in Angola", Luís Teles considered that the participation of banks in implementing the commitment to achieve a carbon neutral economy by 2050 – a commitment made by a group of more than 120 countries, including Angola – is "very important", and should encourage "clients to review their business models, choosing to create and develop businesses with a lower carbon footprint", through "an organized database that allows us to know how to categorize the type of business they are financing, the positive social, economic and environmental impacts of the business".
According to a statement sent to VerAngola, for Standard Bank of Angola, "it is a priority to finance sustainable investments and train its teams in sustainability matters".
Thus, the CEO of the SBA, quoted in the note, said that the bank (which is owned by the Standard Bank Group), "has the ambition to finance the energy transition in Africa".
"Not only because of market and investor expectations, but also because the promotion of policies that facilitate the energy transition, financing initiatives that comply with ESG criteria, is part of the group's organizational culture", he added.
In the country, the SBA created a Corporate Citizenship Department, "which is responsible for implementing a sustainability strategy supported by a set of initiatives that have people, the community, the planet and sustainable economic growth as their pillars", reads in the note.
Luís Teles also made it known that this year, for the first time, they will publish the Report for Society. "This year, for the first time, we will publish our Report for Society, which focuses on themes linked to the social, environmental and economic impact of our business, and with this we hope to contribute to influencing the sector and our customers on the need to take into account the impact of their businesses, from an economic, social and environmental point of view", he pointed out.
It should be noted that the meeting brought together national and international experts from the banking sector, in order to debate, among other issues, "regulation, capital requirements and financial reports, risk management, disruptive technologies, reduced interest rates, and the quality of data management, in order to positively impact corporate profits, strengthen customer relationships and support the adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria", completes the statement.
