Our corporate citizenship
As Erste Group, we see it as our duty to act as a responsible corporate citizen - whether this involves our employees and customers or the companies we finance. Because we believe that open and respectful cooperation will be decisive for our future success.
Our company policy
In all our activities, we are therefore guided by social as well as ecological and ethical principles. With specially defined and binding guidelines, such as the Code of Conduct, we ensure that we pay attention to fairness, respect and sustainability in all our activities in order to ensure harmonious cooperation.
Diversity, Inclusion and Health
Diversity and inclusion are essential values in everything we do and bring more innovative solutions and economic success. That is why we strive to create a working environment that is free of discrimination and in which every person is valued. Our employees also have the opportunity to exchange ideas on topics such as diversity and feminism in internal networks and to actively promote them within Erste Group.
In addition, we focus on preventive health care as well as physical and mental health and continuously expand our health offerings to ensure the well-being of our employees. In this way, we create a workplace where our employees can be fit, healthy and completely themselves.
Tax policy and anti corruption
Taxes
As one of the leading financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe, we have a greater responsibility - also in dealing with the state and tax authorities. Therefore, we undertake not to choose aggressive tax practices or support third-party tax avoidance models. The Group Tax Code of Conduct sets out these basic principles.
Erste Group is a responsible tax payer, paying the amount of taxes legally due in any territory, in accordance with local legislation and international accepted principles. Please find more information in our Tax Code of Conduct.
Incurred taxes on Erste Group's income in the various countries in EUR million in 2023:
Source: 2023 consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS, other disclosures item 67 country-by-country reporting
Anti corruption
Erste Group makes every effort to avoid corruption and conflicts of interest. These range from various mandatory and voluntary employee training courses, risk assessments for outsourcing activities to the setting of proactive measures to identify and avoid conflicts of interest and corruption.
The fight against corruption is a logical consequence of our Code of Conduct, in which we commit ourselves to comply with all legal regulations and framework conditions. Erste Group has been operating the whistleblowing system "Erste Integrity" since 2014, in which anonymous criminal cases and breaches of banking supervisory law can be reported. The outward sign of our commitment is also our membership in "Transparency International", in which our Chairman of the Supervisory Board, DI. Mag. Rödler, is on the Executive Board of the Austrian Chapter.