ESG Development in Financials update

This week, we are coming back to the tenth and final update to our ESG Development Heatmaps series for 2021, analyzing the progress for the Financials sector (split into Banks and Non-Bank Financials). As we have done before, we only focused on (1) companies listed in the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and (2) publicly disclosed materials.

Banks

Non-Bank Financials

* Unifin has disclosed that it has done a materiality analysis, but the results are not yet publicly available

What can we read from these heatmaps?

1. The most relevant change in both sectors was an increased adoption of SASB standards in reporting. 3 banks and 3 non-bank financials reported SASB indicators in 2021 (38% and 50% of the sectors, respectively), while in 2020 no one had done it.
2. Now 83% of the Non-Bank Financials sector is aligned with the SDGs and the United Nation’s Global Compact, compared to 50% last year.
3. The BMV and Gentera published the results of their first materiality analyses, and Qualitas updated its 2016 analysis. This means that now half of the Non-Bank Financials peers have updated materiality analyses, compared to 17% in 2019.
4. There was a 17% increase in ESG Committees, TCFD assessments, and UN Global Compact signatories for Non-Bank Financials.

Some additional progress that we could expect for the 2021 reporting cycle based on information published in 2020 includes Regional’s TCFD assessment and CDP score, and Crédito Real’s CDP score.

Banks continue to be among the strongest ESG adopters in Mexico, with some players being clear leaders. Because of this, if the other banks don’t play catch-up, there may be little improvement year over year. One thing we would like to see though is a complete set of key performance indicators for material topics in this sector (ideally with publicly disclosed targets for all of them them).

I hope you found this interesting. As usual, if there is anything we can help you with, or if there is an ESG topic you would like to know more about, please let us know.

Best,

Marimar

CEO, Miranda ESG