Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

Since the day of inception, we have adopted a responsible banking approach that values people and society. Our business model aims a sustainable development through investing in innovation and technology for the satisfaction of our stakeholders. As a social responsible bank that closely monitors global developments and the demands of our stakeholders, we define our role as ‘creating a positive impact through our services and guiding sustainable finance by inspiring our stakeholders to make sustainable choices’.

At DenizBank, we aim to support the sustainable growth of our stakeholders through our services and activities. We prioritize sustainable investments to ensure the growth of the business community and the society - a commitment for our long-term success and, more importantly, for minimizing environmental and social negative impacts.

The Sustainability Management System was introduced to monitor and improve sustainability performance regularly. Under this system, we consider all our operations on a holistic basis and monitor them in line with policies and procedures.

To that end, we manage our sustainability approach under three main headings, namely social, environmental and governance-related sustainability, within an awareness of our capacity to influence and shape society as a financial service provider.

Social Sustainability:

We aim to promote human rights, fair working conditions, diversity, gender equality and equal opportunities to contribute to social development through the Bank's business operations. To that end, DenizBank:

Aims to provide its employees with a healthy and safe working environment where human rights and employee rights are respected and equal opportunities are offered,
Contributes to raising awareness in the field of sustainability within both the Bank and the society by supporting continuous training and competence development activities for improving organizational capacity,
Aims to contribute to the success of its employees with a fair reward and performance system and works to provide a working environment that is compatible with the organization’s ethical values and strategic goals,
Aims to develop products and services that support social development from a sustainability perspective,
Offers funds to the agricultural industry and farmers to support the agricultural sector, which is a key area of economic activity for Turkey, as well as local development,
Implements projects that will contribute to social development and aims to make social contribution by supporting projects aimed at raising social awareness, particularly in the fields of education, culture, art and sports.

Environmental Sustainability:

The financial sector has a key role in the supporting power of the financing it provides for transition to a low carbon economy. Aware of this role, we care about contributing to the sustainable consumption of limited resources, to the combat against climate change and to increasing the resistance against unavoidable environmental changes via our services and activities.

To that end, DenizBank:

Manages the environmental and social impacts from its operations through the "Policy on the Management of Direct Environmental Social and Impacts",
Manages and monitors the environmental social impact process regarding products and services through the "Policy on the Management of Environmental and Social Impacts in Lending Processes",
Monitors the consumption as well as environmental impacts from its operations and aims to improve them through mitigation projects,
Develops sustainable finance products and considers emissions from operations to support the struggle against global climate change and champion climate adaptation, which are fundamental to sustainable development,
Acts fairly in supplier selection and considers prioritizing local suppliers that have environmentally-friendly practices in procurement to support the local and low-carbon economy.

Governance-Related Sustainability:

We offer value-oriented services to our stakeholders through our technology-integrated approaches aiming for continuous improvement. Our high standards in business ethics enable us to protect the confidence in and reputation of our Bank.

To that end, DenizBank:

Adopts an approach based on fairly sharing the values it creates through its services and operations with shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders in line with the principles of accountability and transparency,
Executes the Bank's sustainability operations and objectives under the supervision of the Sustainability Committee,
Closely follows national and international developments in the sector by taking part in sustainability initiatives to successfully realize the long-term goal of creating value for all its stakeholders,
Aims to ensure continuous customer satisfaction,
Manages its sustainability work through a transparent and accountable structure,
Observes the ethical and moral rules which are among the company values, does not tolerate bribery and corruption in any way whatsoever and adopts the principle of managing these issues in line with the Anti-Corruption Policy and Ethical Principles Policy.

The Sustainability Committee is responsible for pursuing, updating and executing this policy while the responsibility for its approval and cancellation rests with the Board of Directors. All updates are shared with DenizBank employees and all other stakeholders through communication channels. This policy was adopted by the Board of Directors and entered into force on 01.12.2021.

POLICY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF DIRECT ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS

At DenizBank, we aim to support the sustainable growth of our stakeholders through our services and activities. We prioritize sustainable investments to ensure the growth of the business community and the society - a commitment for our long-term success and, more importantly, for minimizing environmental and social negative impacts.

To that end, at DenizBank, we care about maintaining all activities in a manner that respects both the nature and the society. In line with the responsible banking approach, we mind our impact on the environment and people in business processes and aim to continuously improve ourselves to minimize the environmental and social impacts from our operational activities. We follow the environmental and social developments in the world, update our practices and harmonize them with legal regulations as well as national and international standards and fulfill our related responsibilities by improving our current position.

In its Policy on the Management of Direct Environmental and Social Impacts, DenizBank aims:

To observe human rights and provide a decent, healthy and safe working environment,
Not to discriminate its employees on the basis of language, religion, gender, ethnic origin, marital status and age or on other grounds,
To pursue a zero-tolerance policy regarding all kinds of discrimination and physical, sexual, psychological and/or emotional abuse,
To continuously monitor the environmental impacts from its operations, to reduce such impacts and to develop related projects,
To regularly record and monitor its performance on matters such as energy and resource consumption in line with its principle of minimizing social and environmental impacts,
To monitor greenhouse gas emissions as part of its efforts to combat climate change, / to act within an awareness of climate change, to pursue practices compatible with the combat against climate change in all its operations,
To encourage its employees and all other stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices, to carry out relevant awareness-raising activities,
To ensure that its suppliers and service providers operate in compliance with the Bank's “Policy on the Management of Environmental and Social Impacts”.

The Sustainability Committee is responsible for pursuing, updating and executing this policy while the responsibility for its approval and cancellation rests with the Board of Directors. All updates are shared with DenizBank employees and all other stakeholders through communication channels. This policy was adopted by the Board of Directors and entered into force on 01.12.2021.

POLICY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS IN LENDING PROCESSES

At DenizBank, we aim to support the sustainable growth of our stakeholders through our services and activities. We prioritize sustainable investments to ensure the growth of the business community and the society - a commitment for our long-term success and, more importantly, for minimizing environmental and social negative impacts. As a social responsible bank that closely monitors global developments and the demands of our stakeholders, we define our role as 'creating a positive impact through our services and guiding sustainable finance by inspiring our stakeholders to make sustainable choices'.

Accordingly, as a financial service provider, we are aware of the significance of the impact we create through our products and services. Therefore, we manage the impacts we create, i.e. our indirect impacts, as part of the "Policy on the Management of Environmental and Social Impacts in Lending Processes".

To that end, DenizBank:

Does not under any circumstance finance activities prohibited by national legislation and international conventions to which Turkey is a party,
Does not under any circumstance finance activities included in the "Exclusion List", which is an appendix to this policy,
Applies the environmental and social risk assessment model developed as part of the Sustainability Management System to the new project finance loan applications over a certain amount,
Systematically monitors the environmental and social impacts of the loans falling into the foregoing scope, monitors the management of potential impacts by customers within the framework of environmental and social action plans,
Attaches importance to financing the projects that will support such areas in line with the perspective of promoting the transition to a low-carbon economy,
Cares about supporting agriculture and farmers involved in the sustainable development of Turkey and finances sustainable agriculture, agricultural security and farmer support projects in line with its corporate strategy,
Systematically evaluates and monitors the environmental and social impacts of agricultural investment loans through the checklist it developed,
Pursues the development of special-themed products and services that offer environmental, social and economic contributions to the development of sustainable finance and strives to shape its relevant product offers according to the needs of the society,
Cares about informing and raising awareness of its customers about climate change as well as environmental and social impacts.

The Sustainability Committee is responsible for pursuing, updating and executing this policy while the responsibility for its approval and cancellation rests with the Board of Directors. All updates are shared with DenizBank employees and all other stakeholders through communication channels. This policy was adopted by the Board of Directors and entered into force on 01.12.2021.

DenizBank Exclusion List Acitivities¹
1	Production or trade in any product or activity subject to international bans, such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides/herbicides
2	Co-firing of biomass with fossil fuels, peat or hazardous waste (including waste wood that has been treated with wood preservation chemicals)
3	Sourcing of biomass from primary moist tropical forests or from natural forests
4	Activities related to pornography and prostitution
5	Activities conducted in RAMSAR areas (wetlands)
6	Real or legal persons' activities falling within the scope of prohibited activities mentioned in CITES convention
7	Transportation of oil and other hazardous substances via tankers that do not comply with the requirements of International Maritime Organization (IMO)
8	Activities posing a threat to the areas in UNESCO World Heritage List
9	Transboundary commerce of wastes or disposals not in compliance with Basel convention and related regulations
10	Production or trade in any product or activity deemed illegal under host country laws or regulations or international conventions and agreements
11	Drift net fishing in the marine environment using nets in excess of 2.5 km in length by using explosives and toxic substances
12	Production or trade in any product or activity containing/related to PCB's regardless of the sector
13	Production or trade in wood or other forestry products other than from sustainably managed forests
14	Production or activities violating human rights, involving harmful or exploitative forms of forced labor/child labor
15	Production or trade in unbounded (prohibited) asbestos²
16	Production or trade in radioactive materials³
17	Production or trade in Ozone Depleting Substances
18	Production or trade in weapons of mass destruction and land-mines

Additional DenizBank Exclusion List Activities for Agricultural Segment
1	Production or trade in alcoholic beverages (excluding beer and wine).
2	Gambling, casinos and equivalent enterprises.
3	Production or activities that impinge on the lands owned, or claimed under adjudication, by Indigenous Peoples, without full documented consent of such peoples.
4	Production or trade in tobacco.⁴

¹Prohibited activities in the light of available to DenizBank information.

²This does not apply to purchase and use of bonded asbestos cement sheeting where the asbestos content is less than 20%.

³This does not apply to the purchase of medical equipment, quality control (measurement) equipment and any equipment where the Bank considers the radioactive source to be trivial and/or adequately shielded.

⁴This activity is limited to 3% of total agricultural exposure of DenizBank, control of this threshold is under DenizBank responsibility.

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Sustainability

1. Denizbank Sustainability Policy

2. Denizbank Direct Environmental and Social Impacts Policy

3. Denizbank Policy on Environmental and Social Impact on Lending

DenizBank Exclusion List

DenizBank Sustainable Finance Framework 2023

DenizBank Sustainable Finance Framework’s Second Party Opinion by ISS 2023