Materiality analysis
Which sustainability issues are particularly relevant for Commerzbank?
What do we mean by materiality?
In order to contribute to sustainable development, companies must understand what impact their business activities have on the environment and society. We assess this impact by means of a materiality analysis. In doing so, we consider potential and actual, positive and negative impacts that arise or can arise either directly or indirectly through the company.
In 2024, Commerzbank prepared a materiality analysis in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for the first time. The dual materiality analysis focuses on impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs).
It serves to identify in a structured way the sustainability issues that are essential for a company and which are then to be incorporated into the management processes of the bank. In addition, the materiality analysis identifies topics to be reported in the Group Sustainability Report.
Our materiality analysis
The basis for the identification of the material topics is an extensive list of topics from the ESRS, which includes almost 100 topics and sub-topics from the fields of "environment", "social" and "governance".
Commerzbank conducted interviews with internal and external stakeholders of the bank to determine the significance of the impact. Risks and opportunities were determined in a multi-stage internal process, including the Bank's risk management and the specialist units responsible for the individual topics of the materiality analysis. To this end, the Bank has formulated IROs on all topics in the ESRS list of topics – i.e. descriptions of possible positive or negative effects of the Bank on the topic ("inside-out perspective") as well as possible risks or opportunities arising from the topics for the Bank ("outside-in perspective"). These IROs were evaluated in accordance with the requirements of the ESRS with regard to size, scope, immutability and probability of occurrence. Any IROs that exceed a pre-defined threshold are considered significant impacts, risks, and opportunities.
The list of significant impacts, risks and opportunities is published in our Group Sustainability Report starting on page 66 (SBM-3). A detailed description of the conducted materiality analysis can be found in the Group Sustainability Report starting on page 78 (IRO-1).
3 steps, Our approach
IRO list development
Based on the ESRS topics, we identify potential impacts, risks and opportunities. These are the so-called IROs.
IRO list assessment
In stakeholder interviews and together with internal experts, we evaluate the IROs according to their extent, scope, immutability and probability of occurrence.
Validation of results and disclosure
IROs that exceed a pre-defined materiality threshold are identified as material topics. We report on these topics.