Our Group maintains an open and constructive dialogue with its stakeholders. This dynamic of interaction allows the Group to identify stakeholder expectations and to take society’s transformation into account to feed its strategic orientations.
BNP Paribas pays close attention to all the stakeholders in its ecosystem. These are segmented into two types: the first, known as contractual stakeholders, includes customers, employees and employee representative bodies, individual shareholders and institutional investors, as well as suppliers. The second, known as strategic stakeholders, groups companies in which the Group invests, regulatory bodies, governments and parliamentarians, international organisations, regional and local authorities, civil society, financial and non-financial ratings agencies, and also includes the media and local populations.
In line with our company purpose, we have chosen to interact with all our stakeholders through an open and constructive dialogue. These interactions occur daily, and in many forms, such as by providing information, implementing structured dialogue, and by using frameworks for exchanges and relationship management. This listening and interactive approach enables us to anticipate changes in our business lines, constantly improve the quality of our products and services, optimise the management of the risks faced by the Group and design innovative solutions with a positive impact on society.
To inform the analysis of our stakeholders’ expectations, our materiality matrix maps and prioritises the challenges facing the Group. The initial version of 2018 was revised in 2021. This update was based on the assessment of the importance of 21 non-financial issues, by collating the perceptions of the Group’s employees(1) with those of its external stakeholders. At the end of this study, three groups of issues — classified as crucial, major and important — emerged.
Six issues are identified as crucial for BNP Paribas. They bring together three issues already present in the 2018 matrix — confidentiality and data security, climate change and energy transition, ethics and compliance — and three new issues identified in the 2021 update: human rights, responsible investments and financing, and business continuity.
Eight other major issues stand out: corporate economic value; customer expectations; digital transformation and innovation; employer policy; fair and inclusive workplace; governance; talent management; transparent practices.
The six critical and eight major issues represent the 14 priorities included in the construction of our GTS 2025 strategic plan. The three goals around which this plan is structured — profitable growth (Growth), optimisation of the customer and employee experience (Technology), and the scaling up of sustainable finance (Sustainability) — are the themes that link these 14 priorities together.
(1) These perceptions were collected from more than 1,200 Senior Group Managers.
