Year

Milestones

2008

BPI started publishing a stand-alone annual Sustainability Report.

Alignment of BPI’s Sustainability Report with the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Standards (called the GRI Standards starting 2016)

2017

Adoption of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework

Shift to an annual Integrated Report format which incorporated its 2017 Sustainability Report into a comprehensive annual report for the Bank

2018

BPI began reporting its contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

2020

Alignment with the standards of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) for commercial banks

BPI started engaging DNV to provide external assurance for the sustainability portion of its Integrated Report.

2021

BPI signed up as a supporter of the Task Force on Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD).

Governance

Climate-related risks and opportunities are thoroughly discussed at board-level committee meetings whenever appropriate, and board-approved policies integrating environmental risks to the Bank’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework are already in place.

BPI’s Corporate Governance manual has also been expanded to include a section dedicated to sustainability, where the Bank’s Sustainability Agenda which supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, has been discussed.

The Bank also has a dedicated senior management-level Sustainability Council whose responsibilities include the mitigation, management, and reporting of climate-related risks, as well as the evaluation and implementation of climate-related programs and initiatives.

Furthermore, the BPI senior management team is periodically updated on the environmental risk scores of the Bank’s and its clients’ assets. These updates are used for both strategic and short-term action plans, with the implementation managed by the concerned group within the Bank and monitored by the Sustainability Office.

Risk Management

The Bank is continuously developing and enhancing policies, procedures, and guidelines toward the full integration of climate-related risks to the Bank’s overall risk management framework in line with regulations, best practices, and global standards such as the TCFD recommendations.

In particular, we have integrated an Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) into the Bank’s climate and environmental risk appraisal process for our employees and physical assets. Powered by the Hazard Hunter system of DOST and PHIVOLCS, ERA has also been incorporated into the credit evaluation process of corporate and SME loans.

By 2021, BPI’s risk exposure scoring for seismic, hydro-meteorological, and volcanic eruption hazards has been expanded to cover employee residences, offices, and machines (ATMs/CAMs), as well as collaterals and assets of retail clients, in addition to the original ERA scores of Corporate and SME clients.

Hazard Hunter georisk scores and assessments are used by the Bank in advising clients on risk mitigating and risk-preparedness measures such as project relocation, engineering interventions, and/or insurance coverage. The Bank’s management team also uses Hazard Hunter assessment results in mapping and planning branch and machine locations, as well as in advising employees on managing their natural catastrophe risk exposure.

Aware of the pre-identified and pre-calculated natural hazards, BPI business units have thereby been equipped with the information and data needed to develop and adjust Business Continuity Plans. This procedure ensures risk preparedness, resilience, and reliability of our operations and services for the communities we serve and the Filipino people in general, amidst the threat of disruption caused by natural catastrophes.