Premium Credit - Committed to being a force for good

Authored by Adam Morghem, Chair, Sustainability Committee, Strategy, Marketing & Communication Director, Premium Credit

As a purpose led organisation, everything we do is underpinned by four corporate values: Stand Together; Stand Up; Stand True and Stand Out, which is core to our business ethos. As part of this we are implementing strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices to ensure we are a responsible business, constantly reviewing what we do and how we do it.

We’re proud of our sustainability activity, that may be equivalent to many financial services businesses of our size, but we recognise that there is always more we can do.

Following a peer, regulatory and risk review of our ESG performance, we have established a Sustainability Committee and an ESG Framework. Since that point the Committee has driven ESG action that is relevant to our business model and practices, ensuring Premium Credit is socially and ethically accountable and contributing to the communities we serve.

Our performance so far

We are making good progress across all areas of our ESG Framework including improved reporting of a range of KPIs in order to ultimately align to the SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board), standards issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (‘ISSB’) and to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (‘TCFD’).

We have also developed a clear Sustainability Policy that sets out our objectives, areas of focus, Committee responsibilities and brings together a range of existing policies.

Ecovadis sustainability rating

We remain committed to validating our ESG progress using independent assessors, Ecovadis, a trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, who align their methodology with international standards.

Ecovadis provides a review of our commitment to four key areas, namely Environment, Labour & Human rights, Ethics and Sustainable procurement.

Ecovadis improved our total assessment score from 63 to 68 in our latest assessment, following an improvement in both our Procurement and Labour/Human Rights scores. We were delighted to have been awarded another ‘Silver’ medal in the latest results. This is another good step forward for the business and our ESG agenda.

The future

Going forward we want to constantly align our activities to our purpose and strategy, with a robust understanding and visibility of our material issues and impacts, whilst ensuring we are a force for good.

We have recently recruited a dedicated Sustainability Manager to manage the day-to-day aspects of our ESG agenda. Their immediate focus is on:

• Managing the changing standards and ensuring we remain informed and compliant where appropriate
• Completing our annual independent assessment, reviewing results and seeking the next round of improvements
• And promoting our Sustainability agenda both internally and externally

We consider this to be a critical role regarding the future development of our business.

Next steps

There is much to do to ensure we remain a good citizen and responsible business in a rapidly changing world but thanks to an unwavering commitment, our team, with Executive sponsorship is tirelessly implementing our ESG activities and improving what we do in this area.

We recognise that embracing ESG is not only crucial for addressing global challenges and contributing to a more sustainable society but also for enhancing Premium Credit’s business resilience, financial performance and how we are viewed, all aspects which are important to us.

We look forward to keeping you updated on the progress we make.