ABN AMRO first bank to include Impact Statement in Integrated Report
ABN AMRO is the first bank worldwide to include an Impact Statement in its Integrated Annual Review (IAR). This statement shows the value ABN AMRO creates and reduces for each of its key stakeholder groups. Innovative is also that ABN AMRO has received limited assurance on the Impact Statement from its auditor EY.
In line with its Core and More approach, ABN AMRO published an Impact Report with more details for the second consecutive year. The Impact Report is a systematic overview of its impact on all its key stakeholders: clients, employees, investors and society at large. Amongst other things, it shows ABN AMRO’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, and its reduction of (true) societal costs.
Van Dijkhuizen also recognized that impact measurement is a young science. ABN AMRO has therefore sought to have a solid foundation for its Impact Reporting and to provide transparency about the methodology used:
- The Impact Report used the open source Integrated Profit and Loss Assessment Methodology (IAM) and the Framework for Impact Statements.
- ABN AMRO provided detailed disclosure on the scope, methodology, data and limitations of Impact Statement in its Note on Methodology.
- The impacts of ABN AMRO’s investment portfolio was assessed using the new Global Impact Database (GID). The GID provided robust, consistent, and comparable estimates of impact on Natural, Financial, Social, Human, and Manufactured Capital for industries worldwide.
Impact Institute sees that with its impact reporting, ABN AMRO meets the need in society and among investors for businesses to be transparent about their long term value creation to all stakeholders. A recent Harvard Business School report identified solid, quantitative, and monetized impact reporting as the basis for the creation of an impact economy; it identified 56 listed companies worldwide that engage in monetary impact valuation. ABN AMRO is clearly a leader in this movement.
