Indeed, our policy of social and mutualist responsibility can be considered as a more profound form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) adopted for the purposes of our group. As an engaged player, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale wants to make a tangible contribution toward building a responsible world that reflects its values, by galvanizing managers, elected directors and employees around a set of shared goals.
Serving our members and customers
Listening to our members, providing banking services for everyone and controlling risk are the three central aims underlying our primary goal, which is to support our customers and members on a day-to-day basis.
Ensuring that they benefit from personalized advice that meets their needs and have access to clearly and comprehensively described products is just one element.
Over and above our standard services, we also aim to support financially vulnerable people by working to prevent overindebtedness. Our support services involve a case-by-case approach with budget management tools and financial training modules for customers who are in financial difficulty.
A mutualist governance approach
Our group governance aims to be dynamic, effective and transparent. This is the very essence of the mutualist model.
To this end, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale lays stress on the transparency of its election procedures and the appointment of members to boards of directors and supervisory boards, as well as on the active management of the group's institutional affairs.
This entails monitoring to ensure the highest possible level of active participation in the boards, general meetings and committees of which they are the principal representatives. To help them fulfill their role and tasks under the best possible conditions, professional training is provided to all elected directors in line with their expertise and experience.
This approach is designed to enable smooth management of the group's cooperative organization while guaranteeing balanced representation of elected directors without discrimination for the benefit of all members.
Goals that benefit society
This strategy is fulfilled through a purchasing policy that incorporates both economic and qualitative criteria, as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Responsible relationships are fostered through initiatives such as having all our suppliers sign a "sustainable and responsible purchasing charter" that directly reflects our internal commitments under our group purchasing policy.
We foster commercial relationships with engaged partners as part of a sustainable development approach that includes permanent local and regional commitments. As a leading employer and a group with an extensive regional presence, we seek to foster growth in activities that are anchored in local economic and social ecosystems.
Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale also promotes local initiatives as part of its cooperative and mutualist model. This entails supporting customer-member associations by setting up partnerships and sponsorship initiatives around cultural, educational, sports or musical projects at all levels.
An affirmative employment policy
It is of primary importance that we remain a bank that supports all talent. Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale implements concrete objectives around equal opportunity and diversity (gender, social status, origin and geography): achieving gender equality in management positions, promoting employment among young people in disadvantaged districts and rural areas and facilitating the recruitment and integration of disabled people are a few examples.
Equal opportunity within our group requires massive investment in training for our employees to enable them to achieve promotion and develop their skills. In addition to providing training for all employees, we identify and support employees who show potential, while also addressing the intrinsic generational challenge that this poses.
Also from a mutualist perspective, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale undertakes to help improve the quality of life in the workplace for all staff members and to promote social dialogue in all its forms alongside the unions. Only by fulfilling these goals can we ensure we are an attractive place to work, value our staff, and remain people-oriented and innovative.
An environmental approach
The group's priority goal in reducing its environmental impact is to lower its carbon footprint by 30% by 2023. The transition to a low carbon economy and reduction of emissions is only possible through responsible management of all our activities and taking account of environmental, economic and societal factors in the daily performance of each and every business activity.
To this end, various measures and action or information plans have been implemented at the local level. Our efforts to enhance and embed green initiatives include setting up a collective in-house carbon offset mechanism (feasibility study underway) and creating an “eco-citizen” environment in the workplace to raise awareness among our employees of the measures we are taking and of “eco-gestures” that they can adopt.
A similar environmental approach is also applied in the form of specific responsible financing offers and solutions within a varied universe of requirements in order to support customers, members and businesses with their CSR objectives.
The five priority projects of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale
