| About the BKC – Bank for Church and Caritas eG
The Bank for Church and Caritas is one of the pioneers in the market for ethically sustainable investments. As early as 2003, the company’s own investments and all banking products were linked with an ethically sustainable investment strategy. Since then, the BKC has taken a comprehensive set of sustainability criteria from environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects into account in its investments. The ESG criteria are based on the guiding principles of protecting human life, peace, justice and creation. The ethically sustainable investment strategy is made up of a mixture of exclusion, negative and positive criteria that lead to the exclusion and prioritization of investments.
| Engagement
The ethical and sustainable investment strategy also includes the so-called “engagement”, in which the BKC exerts its influence as an investor in companies and encourages it to take sustainability aspects into account more.
We exercise our influence through the exercise of voting rights for shares (“vote”) and constructive dialogues (“voice”) with the investment objects. Above all, the dialogue, which takes place via written or personal communication with company representatives, through speeches at general meetings or through participation in public investor campaigns, is of particular importance in our engagement strategy, since we attribute a high degree of influence to it.
We carry out our engagement activities not only with listed companies, but also with bond issuing companies or other investment objects. In addition, at an overarching level, with industry associations or financial market players such as rating agencies or voting rights advisors, we actively influence the better integration of sustainability aspects in their business areas.
| further information on our engagement activities here (in German)
