Our ESG ambition: being an agent of positive change

We’re committed to supporting our clients’
sustainability transition by providing them
with thought leadership, advice and solutions
to help them have a positive impact on the world.

Problems such as ocean
degradation and biodiversity loss
don’t just threaten our
environment.They threaten our
economy and the fabric of society
itself. Solving them requires urgent
action, investment and
transformation, and we’re
committed to playing our part – by
shifting mindsets with our thought
leadership and building an holistic
ESG offering to help our clients
achieve positive change.

Claudio de Sanctis
Head of the International Private Bank
CE0 EMEA, Deutsche bank

Our ESG transformation

ESG investment philosophy

  • Our thought leadership leads our ESG approach and underpins our product development strategy for sustainable solutions. In recent years we have published 20 dedicated ESG publications and held more than 250 ESG-focused events and activities, covering the ocean, land and atmosphere.


Products and services

  • We aim to offer clients a suite of investment products incorporating ESG criteria, including discretionary portfolio management, liquid funds, private markets and lending.
  •  Our flagship Strategic Asset Allocation solution takes an exclusion-based ESG approach to ensure client portfolios are built around a sustainable core.
  • We are expanding our ESG liquid funds offering, and our range of dedicated lending products, which include electric vehicle financing, green mortgages and financing home renovations for carbon reduction.We are particularly excited about private markets. In 2023, we plan to launch three private markets funds, and an impact, nature-based solution in 2024.


Platform and capabilities

  • We have rolled-out ESG training to more than 7,000 colleagues over the last two years and we will continue this huge effort to ensure we deliver a compelling end-to-end ESG experience to our clients. We are advancing our technological capabilities by investing in robust platforms and strong data foundations. 

Watch Claudio de Sanctis, Head of the International Private Bank and CEO EMEA, Deutsche Bank, explain our ESG ambitions at Deutsche Bank's 'Sustainability Deep Dive' event on March 2, 2023. Click here to watch the video.    

Future Climate Coral Bank Impact Report 

Our partnership with the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA)

  • We were the first bank to be a full member of the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) and we will continue our work to scale up global action and private investment in marine and coastal natural capital. 
  • Joining ORRAA allowed us to deep-dive into pressures the ocean is experiencing. Last year, we co-hosted our inaugural Ocean Conference in Mallorca, where more than 100 influential investors, entrepreneurs and philanthropists convened to develop ideas for supporting ocean finance. 
  • Going forward, we want to tackle opportunities to invest into ocean-related impact solutions for our clients. With this focus and support from ORRAA, we are in a unique position to expand our thought leadership on the ocean and sustainable blue economy, and to integrate that understanding into everything we do.

Watch Karen Sack, Executive Director of ORRAA, and Markus Müller, Chief Investment Officer ESG & Global Head of Chief Investment Office, Deutsche Bank Private Bank, explaining our partnership and shared focus on the ocean, as shown at Deutsche Bank's 'Sustainability Deep Dive'. Click here to watch the video

For more details on ORRAA’s recent activities, please see the ORRAA Action Report 

The DB x ORRAA Ocean Conference 2022 

Disclosure
Our ESG framework takes into account the applicable EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), with adaptations for local markets that we assess and update continually, plus guiding principles developed in-house based on Deutsche Bank’s values and beliefs. However, there is currently a lack of uniform criteria and a common market standard for the assessment and classification of financial services and financial products as sustainable. This can lead to different providers assessing the sustainability of financial services and financial products differently. In addition, there are various new regulations on ESG (Environment, Social and Corporate Governance) and Sustainable Finance, which need to be substantiated, and further draft regulations are currently being developed, which may lead to financial services and financial products currently labelled as sustainable not meeting future legal requirements for qualification as sustainable.

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