Cembra Money Bank (“the Bank”) is strongly convinced that it can only generate competitive advantage and sustainable value in the long-term if it takes into account the interests, expectations, and challenges of the stakeholders involved in its value creation. Stakeholders include customers, employees, partners, investors, regulators, and community organisations. The Bank’s major responsibilities are of an economic, legal, ethical, and social nature.

Employees from various units within the bank have been intensely involved in a project to identify what are the key drivers to ensure sustainable value. Having examined the challenges and opportunities the bank and its stakeholders face, four key areas have been identified:

• Product and service integrity;
• Customer orientation;
• Employee diversity and development; and
• Social engagement.

The Bank’s strategic goal is to enhance its position as the leading provider of consumer finance products and services in Switzerland whilst maintaining the corporate social responsibility goals. The critical success factors for achieving this goal are the ability to raise presence in key markets and to continue to differentiate through outstanding service and operational excellence. Product and service integrity is crucial to this strategy and at the same time to preserving the Bank’s “licence to operate”.

Customer orientation lies at the heart of the Bank and its employees, who are committed to providing responsive and responsible consumer finance products and services. In addition to the very strict consumer credit laws in Switzerland, the Bank also puts a strong emphasis on additional verification and offers personal, face-to-face contact with potential and existing customers.

Employees are the key to Bank’s success. They embody and share the Cembra values and drive the Bank’s future. Employee diversity and development are a core element of Cembra Money Bank’s corporate culture. This is expressed by the Bank’s endeavour to offer an inspiring and collaborative workplace for its employees.

Cembra Money Bank is also committed to social engagement. Volunteering for charitable projects has been anchored in the Bank for the past two decades and it is strongly encouraged by the Bank’s management. This is not only to give something back to the community; it also provides an ideal way for employees to take on new responsibilities and further explore and develop their personal skills.

These four topics are interconnected and influence each other. Employee diversity and development considerably influences how the other three topics are approached. Employees’ professional and personal skills, attitudes, and beliefs strongly influence the product and service integrity, customer orientation, and social engagement through volunteering.

The Bank’s corporate culture and the daily work of its employees are guided by values and qualities. These have been defined in workshops by 140 employees from all departments and language regions of the Bank. The values of engagement, customer focus, responsibility, and diversity are relevant to the four material topics. The qualities of expertise, customer proximity, imagination & execution, and speed & ease help to manage the four topics in an efficient and professional way.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Cembra Money Bank is currently managed by a working group composed of senior managers from Compliance, Human Resources, Risk, Legal, Investor Relations, and Communications. The working group reports to the Management Board.

The following sub-chapters explain how the four material topics influence the Bank and its key stakeholders. They show how the Bank addresses these topics by providing details on objectives, responsibilities, measures, and results.