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Mirabaud Group

Corporate responsibility

Mirabaud’s vision, mission and core values are at the forefront of all our activities. These aspects have conveyed our Group’s culture since it was founded in 1819 and are also at the heart of our corporate responsibility strategy (CSR).

Corporate Responsibility Overview

Overview

Our corporate responsibility

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MIRABAUD: AN ACTIVE AND RESPONSIBLE INVESTOR
Mirabaud is featured in the UN PRI information digital campaign of ‘50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders’

Mirabaud’s vision, mission and core values are at the forefront of all our activities. These aspects have conveyed our Group’s culture since it was founded in 1819 and are also at the heart of our corporate responsibility strategy (CSR).

 

Our vision

At Mirabaud, by drawing on the expertise of our talents and our centuries of experience, we bring added value to our clients and ensure that finance plays a positive role in creating a better, fairer and more equal society.

 

Our mission

Our mission is to serve our clients responsibly.

Publications

CSR Brochure

Download our Corporate Social Responsibility brochure here

Publications

CSR Report

Download our 2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report here

Overview

Mirabaud's corporate responsibility

Mirabaud continues to provide a conviction-based corporate social responsibility strategy that includes its clients and employees and extends to all its other stakeholders.
This strategy is steered by a CSR Committee. It is based on four pillars that guide our actions :

  1. An economic responsibility strategy intended for clients, the Group’s economic partners and the wider economy;
  2. A social responsibility strategy aimed at all Mirabaud Group employees;
  3. An environmental responsibility strategy that looks at how natural resources are used and how to protect the environment ;
  4. A societal responsibility strategy for communities and the wider society.

 

Implementing the corporate responsibility strategy at Mirabaud

Corporate social/societal responsibility (CSR) is a key focus at Mirabaud, with values that can be traced back to the Group’s founders. The CSR strategy is driven by the CSR Committee comprising of three Managing Partners as well as heads of various cross-functional and support units. This committee approves the CSR strategy and coordinates its implementation. The CSR Committee meets regularly so that different actions that have been adopted can be monitored and their impact evaluated. Ongoing initiatives and actions are measured and analysed using key indicators. Corrective measures are deployed if necessary. To ensure Mirabaud’s CSR strategy is implemented in a coherent, comprehensive and consistent manner, the CSR Committee refers to the “Table of the four pillars of the CSR strategy” shown below.

Economic Responsibility

Links to the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations member states

 

OBJECTIVE

To maintain a robust corporate governance framework and conduct business responsibly and sustainably

 

COMMITMENT

  • Mirabaud is committed to offering a range of top-quality services and products that are tailored to its clients' needs.
  • Mirabaud is committed to embedding a long-term vision and approach across its governance. 
  • Mirabaud is committed to strengthening sustainable finance across its business activities

 

AREAS FOR ACTION

  • Quality of services offered to clients.
  • Comprehensive range of responsible and sustainable products and services.
  • Business ethics and regulatory compliance.
  • Relationships with partners and providers of products and services

Social Responsibility

Links to the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations member states

 

OBJECTIVE

To encourage a corporate culture that respects all employees, while striving to attract, foster and retain talent.

 

COMMITMENT

  • Mirabaud is committed to providing its employees with a healthy and comfortable working environment. 
  • Mirabaud is committed to retaining, developing and supporting its talent.
  • Mirabaud is committed to promoting employee diversity, inclusion and equal treatment.

 

AREAS FOR ACTION

  • Employee satisfaction and training.
  • Health and safety at work.
  • Diversity, inclusion and equal treatment of employees.

Environmental responsibility

Links to the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations member states

OBJECTIVE

To reduce the environmental impact of our activities.

 

COMMITMENT

  • Mirabaud is committed to preserving natural resources.
  • Mirabaud is committed to understanding its impact on the environment and to limiting it.
  • Mirabaud is committed to optimising its waste management practices.

 

AREAS FOR ACTION

  • Management and reduction of CO2 emissions.
  • Responsible resources and waste management.
  • Responsible purchasing and procurement.

Societal responsibility

Links to the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations member states

 

OBJECTIVE

To contribute to the harmonious development of civil society and to the inclusion of communities.

 

COMMITMENT

  • Mirabaud is committed to establishing partnerships and supporting initiatives that are in line with its passions and values.
  • Mirabaud is committed to being a promoter of peace and to financially supporting actors in the field.

 

AREAS FOR ACTION

  • Cultural and sports partnerships.
  • Involvement in sustainability initiatives and associations.
  • Philanthropy, including the promotion of peace.

 

This table sets out the four pillars on which Mirabaud’s CSR strategy is based. It identifies material topics that must be addressed as a priority. The CSR Committee ensures that relevant initiatives and concrete actions for all topics are implemented or scheduled to be implemented in the near future. The CSR strategy deployed is unique to Mirabaud ; it applies to all of its business lines, subsidiaries and branches. Mirabaud’s management and employees work together to ensure the Group’s CSR strategy is carried out at all times.

UN-PRI

The principles for responsible investment

Principle 1

We will incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes.

 

Principle 2

We will be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our ownership policies and practices.

 

Principle 3

We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest.

 

Principle 4

We will promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles within the investment industry.

 

Principle 5

We will work together to enhance our effectiveness in implementing the Principles.

 

Principle 6

We will each report on our activities and progress towards implementing the Principles.

 

 

www.unpri.org

Our CSR Partners

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The ESG rating applied to company securities, stocks or bonds is a familiar term to responsible investors today. For several decades, rating agencies specialising in extra-financial evaluation have been generating ratings like these using their own approaches and methodologies. The primary objective of such ratings consists of summarising the company’s overall ability to face the key challenges of sustainability as it relates to three areas: the environment, society and governance. Despite ongoing debates on the quality of ESG data and significant discrepancies between different ratings for a single company, the idea of incorporating ESG criteria when evaluating a company has become entrenched. This extra-financial rating has gradually been extended to other important asset classes, including bonds issued by sovereign entities, whether they are governments in “developed” or “emerging” countries. The pandemic, together with the effects of climate change, had an explosive effect on sovereign debt, which reached USD 65.4 trillion in 2021, according to the Janus Henderson Sovereign Debt Index. Beyond a shared desire to prevent ESG risk, the comparison between analyses of sustainability in companies and sovereign entities is quick to end, essentially as a result of their vastly different natures.

Objectives of sovereign ESG ratings

Traditionally, credit risk analysis of sovereign issuers considers macroeconomic and financial variables, such as the state of a country’s finances, the structure of its GDP, its rate of growth, etc. This classic analysis also contains aspects that are indirectly related to the pillar G, for governance, when we consider the rule of law, political stability and the smooth operation of institutions, all of which are significant stakes for the investor. Extensive integration of the ESG criteria will broaden the scope of this analysis and flesh it out by focusing on new risks – those that are extra-financial, in this case. These are the existing, latent or potential environmental, social and governance-related risks to which sovereign issuers are structurally exposed, but also risks relating to the poor political and economic management of States. Such risks have a certain effect on States’ ability to repay their debts, and therefore on their financial rating. Examples, both direct and indirect, of this “link” between solvency and ESG performance are manifold.

ESG performance and State solvency: a significant correlation

The major repercussions of governance are well recognised. If we consider recent news, Mario Draghi’s resignation from his position as Italian prime minister last July –the grand finale in a series of serious governmental hurdles– makes it even more uncertain whether Italy will be able to address its worrying debt issue (150% of the GDP in 2022) in a relaxed manner. Furthermore, Moody’s downgraded the country’s rating from “stable” to “negative” in August. On a social level in Switzerland, there is an intuitive link between the famous and historical “harmonious industrial relations” (so-called “Paix du Travail”) and the satisfactory performance of the economy in terms of productivity and the Confederation’s ability as a borrower to keep its creditors reassured. When it comes to the environment, the correlation is less obvious, but we know that Brazil, 20% of whose GDP is derived from the export of natural resources, is facing the strategic challenge of optimally managing the Amazon rainforest. It is even not worth mentioning the debt-related consequence of State spending to adapt to the growing and increasingly harmful effects of climate change.

Collating data and creating a sovereign ESG rating

As with companies, ESG data is central to measuring the ESG performance of sovereign bodies in terms of one material challenge or another –be it human rights, gender equality, water management or the protection of biodiversity– and eventually assigning an aggregated ESG rating. International organisations and NGOs, such as the World Bank, the OECD, Transparency International and Freedom House now publish a multitude of detailed, relevant and publicly accessible information. These serve as a basis for ESG ratings from specialised rating agencies, such as ISS, Beyond Ratings, Sustainalytics and MSCI, as well as for research conducted by investors themselves.

The critique of this method lies not in the quality of the data, but in the methodologies used by rating agencies to attain an overall rating. Among other biases on which the critique is based, we find the concept of income bias: when compared with emerging sovereign entities, so-called “developed” States generally receive higher ESG ratings, particularly because they have greater resources at their disposal to develop ambitious policies. This endangers the ability of a State such as Costa Rica, for example (although it is still an environmental leader), to raise funds for its development. Another recent critique, which is also applied to grading companies, focuses on the weighting of the E, S and G aspects by specialist agencies. They will use different weights based on their own methodologies, leading to smaller or larger inconsistencies between ratings, which may result in confusion for investors, who are used to seeing a consensus from credit agencies.

In view of this analysis, it’s the responsibility of the investor to devote the necessary resources to carefully choosing the methodology that best corresponds to their ESG values and beliefs or, ideally, to devise their own ESG ratings for sovereign entities. All of these questions notwithstanding, itis clear that the added value of a sovereign ESG assessment, in addition to credit risk analysis, is something we can now all agree upon.

Important information

Please do not hesitate to reach out to your privileged contact person at Mirabaud or contact us here if this topic is of interest to you. Together with our dedicated specialists, we will be happy to evaluate your personal needs and discuss possible investment solutions tailored to your situation.

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