Corporate Social Responsibility

In doing so, our young bank pledged to increasingly incorporate sustainable development issues in all aspects of our activity: in the types of loans we provide, in the manner in which we measure and manage our risks, in our external communication and in our internal operations.

Far from taking us down a new path, this fresh strategic direction resonated deeply with our status as a public development bank established to serve the public interest.
Five years on, at a time when Sfil is celebrating its tenth year in business and has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts Group, we have come a very long way. In 2023, and for the first time, we measured the carbon footprint of our portfolios and published commitments to reduce it; we have developed an innovative methodology to calculate climate and environmental risk scores for local authorities, which are our main clients; and we have introduced an ambitious integration and diversity policy.

We have also redefined our sustainability policy around 10 commitments geared towards our group’s three strategic priorities (ecological transformation, economic growth andsovereignty, and social and regional cohesion), reasserting our ambition to lead by example within our organisation. This new policy sets out a clear and shared course that we must endeavour to stick to in the interests of all our stakeholders.

As regards French local public sector financing, 2023 saw a further significant increase in the share of new thematic loans (green loans, social loans, healthcare loans): 43% in 2023, up from 37% in 2022 and 27% in 2021. It is through these thematic loans that Sfil, as market leader, makes a very real and extensive contribution to the ecological transition and to social cohesion in local communities. In keeping with our mission to harness international capital in order to offer the best possible financing terms to all customers, regardless of their size, we have issued €750 million worth of green bonds and €500 million worth of social “healthcare” bonds.

We understand that by supporting large export contracts, we are helping to safeguard jobs in local communities, and that this is a factor of social cohesion, while also boosting the country’s economic sovereignty. With this in mind, in 2023, we also supported 10 large companies and committed a record amount of €5 billion in export credit.

We will continue in this vein in the coming years: over the next seven years (2024-2030), we pledge to devote €17.5 billion to the ecological and energy transition and€12 billion to public hospitals and to French local authority investment in social infrastructure. We will not finance any new hydrocarbon projects or any conventional power generation project that would increase the carbon intensity of the local energy mix.

We intend to continue, year after year, to further enhance our system for detecting and managing environmental, social and governance risks. In 2024, we renew our pledge to uphold the Ten Principles of the Global Compact and to play our part in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Philippe Mills                                                                      François Laugier
Chief Officer Executive Officer                                        Chief Executive Deputy

Corporate Social Responsibility is at the heart of our strategy

Sfil’s original mission of financing the local public sector naturally requires it to support the investments made by the local public sector, i.e. local governments and public health institutions, thereby promoting the development of a financial ecosystem favorable to the Sustainable Development Goals. Day after day, the financing that it provides to local public investment and competitiveness of French exports allows the completion of sustainable projects that benefit everyone. To achieve this, Sfil does not try to maximize its profitability, but rather focuses on offering high-quality services and maintaining a high level of satisfaction with stakeholders. To expand this dialogue and continuously improve the development of sustainable financing, efforts are constantly made to incorporate CSR criteria and all non-financial information.