Return, risk and impact: a three dimensional approach to banking

Risk and return have long been viewed as the framework for financial analysis. However, the climate emergency and rising public expectations for corporate social responsibility have challenged this vision, bringing a new, equally critical dimension into the picture: impact.

Uncovering hidden risks

Our transformation is more than just a gesture, it responds to a strategic necessity, as traditional financial models are ill-equipped to account for a new category of threat. Extreme weather events (hurricanes, floods, heatwaves) and sudden disruptions (technological or political) usher in a form of uncertainty that is fundamentally different from traditional risks. Ignoring these “hidden risks”, which are steadily intensifying, puts the future value of assets at risk. For example, a real estate asset can lose a significant proportion of its value if it becomes classified as energy-inefficient. Managing non-financial risks goes beyond regulatory compliance, it underscores the Bank’s responsibility to contribute to the just transition that leaves no one behind.

Unlocking structural opportunities

Taking the “impact” dimension into account is an opportunity to rise to the expectations of our retail and corporate customers, at a time when the financing needs of the energy and ecological transition are colossal. For committed banks, this transformation opens up a new market: customers looking for investments that combine financial performance with a contribution to the transition.

One step ahead

This three-dimensional vision is now rolled out through a range of tools based on the Impact Weighting Factor (IWF), a proprietary indicator developed by La Banque Postale and WWF France in 2021 to measure and steer the environmental and social impact of the financings granted.”. We also offer green loans, aligned with European Taxonomy criteria, to support projects in the following areas: responsible property, renewable energy, water and waste, transport, manufacturing, IT and telecommunications.

For retail customers, La Banque Postale offers investments in securities financing social and green loans granted to care institutions, social housing providers or stakeholders in the environmental transition. In 2024, La Banque Postale launched the first impact bank card in France. With the card, customers' deposits are allocated to financing impact home loans and can be used to support WWF France’s biodiversity work.

By committing to act within the framework of the Paris Agreement, since 2021, La Banque Postale has been defending the concept of “three dimensional” finance (return-risk-impact) in which preserving long-term value for customers and shareholders necessarily involves taking environmental and social impact into account. The impact revolution is well and truly underway.

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