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UniCredit was the first bank to undertake an operation of this scale in Italy.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) is embedded in our corporate culture and decision making, and we continue to collaborate with various industry players to enrich and improve our ESG offering across sectors. The partnership signed with RE Valuta is part of the green and sustainable transition that UniCredit has been working towards in recent years, in line with our UniCredit Unlocked strategic plan and ESG strategy.
ESG objectives are changing the dynamics of the real estate industry and in the mortgage sector the focus is now on the energy performance of the buildings used as collateral, as required by the EBA in the LOMs. This is also important for responding to the climate stress test, for Pillar III reporting and for green bond issuance. RE Valuta established a partnership with Immobiliare.it for the development of advanced real estate analysis services and last year we launched our ESG Data Remediation service to retrieve ESG data on all collaterals of new mortgages and on properties already pledged as collateral for loans.
A conversation with...
Marco Predieri, Senior Analyst, Climate Risk & Risk governance
Immagine
Marco Predieri,
Senior Analyst, Climate Risk & Risk governance
To you, what did the RE Valuta initiative mean for UniCredit?
This initiative demonstrates that UniCredit is extremely keen on developing and rolling out its long-term strategy with a robust focus on climate and the environment.
The collection of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) for buildings used as collateral against mortgages is becoming of utmost importance, allowing the Bank to have comprehensive and sound knowledge of its real estate collateral portfolio with the aim to take conscious risk management decisions and proactively mitigate any potential negative impact on the bank’s portfolio. It also allows us to seize business opportunities further incentivising the green transition in real estate, and finally, to meet the increasing attention and requirements that regulators and supervisors are posing to the banking industry (i.e., EBA Pillar III disclosures, EU Taxonomy regulation, ECB expectations on climate and environmental risks).
Why are you particularly proud to have worked on the RE Valuta initiative?
I am proud to have worked on this initiative because, on top of broader strategic and risk considerations, it represents a clear example of bridging the information gap. Access to reliable and consistent climate and environmental data is one of the key challenges for banks as well as a crucial enabler to develop a sound risk management framework and green business strategy.
The fruitful collaboration with RE Valuta relied on its solid proprietary database (especially in Italy) which was combined with its robust statistical methodological approach. In parallel, the bank is also collecting the EPC and related energy indicators directly from its clients in the origination stage for mortgages across all geographies. All of these activities allow our Bank to successfully bridge the information gap and progressively map the real estate collateral portfolio, resulting in Group-wide coverage.
How has this contributed to our Bank’s overall strategy?
The Bank is progressively developing and rolling out a comprehensive and holistic climate and environmental data ecosystem. The initiative on energy performance data collection represents an additional step towards our broader data governance strategy.
The regular and accurate data collection on the Bank’s clients’ portfolio is enabling us to identify, measure, and manage environmental and climate-related risks and further capture “green” business opportunities. This has also supported our Bank in setting ambitious sustainable financing targets (i.e., environmental lending, sustainable bonds which link the financing of green and social projects with debt issuance) in the framework of our ESG strategy to support our clients and communities in a fair and just transition.
