Sustainability

Ensuring sustainability is an important part of our strategy. In 2020, we took additional measures to foster sustainability and responsible behaviour throughout the organisation, and details of that work are provided in this report. We are proud that we were able to make considerable progress, and that we initiated further improvements.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, and thanks to our cautious, long-term risk management approach, our overall loss performance remained robust. Last year, there was no significant rise in the number of customers in financial difficulty, and we provided appropriate, tailored solutions to customers who were unable to meet their contractual repayment obligations as a result of the pandemic.

Cembra is one of the leaders in electromobility financing in Switzerland. We are offering loans and leases for electric vehicles on highly favourable terms, with a growing share of electric vehicles financed. Our strategy is to continue to grow this business in line with the market trend.

In April 2020, we updated our Code of Conduct. The revised version includes further improvements to safeguard the personal integrity of our employees and strengthen our responsibility towards society and the environment. In September 2020, Cembra joined the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to complying with all of its Ten Principles on human rights, labour, the environment and corruption.

Since May 2020, sustainability has been overseen by the Management Board through a new, dedicated Sustainability Committee that is driving our key improvement projects and initiatives. In the reporting period, sustainability-oriented performance indicators also became part of the criteria for determining the Management Board’s long-term incentive compensation.

Between September and November 2020, we conducted a renewed sustainability assessment with our main stakeholders and updated our materiality matrix accordingly. Our sustainability approach continues to be guided by five key sustainability themes, which you – our stakeholders – confirmed to be important for our future success. For the coming years, we also set internal sustainability performance targets that are based on our commitments, with a view to driving further improvements.

With this report, we have also become more transparent about our sustainability performance and our progress in key areas.

Our increasing efforts to promote sustainable action have been acknowledged by leading ESG rating agencies, with Cembra’s sustainability ratings improving considerably in the reporting period. We are also very pleased that Cembra was included in the SXI Switzerland Sustainability 25 Index and became one of only eight Swiss-based companies to join the 2021 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.

We are proud that one million customers in Switzerland have chosen Cembra as their financial partner. This reflects our customers’ appreciation of our products and services but also requires us – as the leading provider of consumer finance products and services in Switzerland – to further improve our sustainability performance.

Your feedback matters to us, and we would like to continue our dialogue with you on sustainability and on our performance in this area. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.