2020 Universal registration document and annual financial report - BNP PARIBAS 557

7 A COMMITTED BANK: INFORMATION CONCERNING THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL,

CIVIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BNP PARIBAS

7

Our economic responsibility: financing the economy in an ethical manner

These commitments are translated into concrete practices deployed in all Group entities, depending on their specific characteristics:

■ dialogue with consumer associations and other stakeholders is encouraged to gather their opinions on new ways to improve clients interests protection;

■ the approval procedures for new products and services: in addition to the issues of clients' interests, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria will be increasingly integrated into the approval process for new products. In particular, the MIFID and IDD regulations(1) should soon be amended so that clients preferences in terms of ESG are taken into account in determining the target market and the marketing of financial and insurance investment products;

■ the structure of the commercial teams remuneration is also subject to qualitative criteria aimed at discouraging transactions that are contrary to the client's interests. For French Retail Banking, for example, the variable remuneration system for sales teams is structured around four aspects of their business, expressing the performance expected of the employee: the quality of the customer relationship, commercial development, management of risks and compliance, as well as management (for the employees concerned). BNP Paribas Fortis in Belgium took five strategic decisions ( High 5 for Positive Banking ) to be implemented by 2025. A share of the variable compensation is linked to several of this strategy s targets, one of which relates to customer satisfaction;

■ supporting vulnerable customers and, more generally, the fighting against exclusion are an integral part of BNP Paribas' values through its day-to-day activities and its policy as a responsible bank (see Products and services that are widely accessible, Commitment 7):

■ in Turkey, taking into account the urgent and specific needs of its customers in the context of the health crisis, BNP Paribas TEB has made its banking services and products widely available, in a quick and convenient way, via its online banking application CEPTETEB;

■ French Retail Banking has set up a specific offer and dedicated support for financially vulnerable customers. In 2020, as part of a collective of large companies promoting a more inclusive economy, French Retail Banking launched a platform reserved for its customers identified as having financial difficulties, giving them access to financial solutions offered by BNP Paribas partners (microinsurance, adapted telephone/internet rates, job offers, etc.);

■ in 2020, BNP Paribas Cardif communicated best practices to the 33 countries in which the company operates to help them identifying a vulnerable customer and proposing an offer that is tailored to its specific needs, BNP Paribas Cardif also offered useful services to its policyholders in times of crisis, in particular with the implementation of an employability platform for its customers affected by unemployment in Latin America, or the partnership with Coursera enabling them to be trained free of charge;

■ the Group is committed to being exemplary in the protection of customers personal data (see Promoting respect for human rights, Commitment 8);

■ employees are made aware and trained on a large scale about clients interests. At the end of November 2020, the CIP Discovery e-learning had been taken by 95.7% of newcomers. Seminars are offered to Compliance employees and other correspondents concerned by the CIP. In 2020, in the context of the health crisis, these seminars were mostly held remotely. For example, CIP weeks , which take the form of daily sessions lasting one and a half hours over a full week. The last session, from 14 to 18 December 2020, provided an update on the essentials of the CIP and hot topics.

Complaints management and mediation

As an indicator of areas for improvement and a way of converting a dissatisfied customer into an ambassador, the management of customer complaints is considered a major issue for the Bank, hence its inclusion in the Group s CIP policy since 2017.

Customer complaints statistics are regularly communicated to the CIP domain. They are one of the indicators used by the Central CIP Domain in its work to identify and monitor risks.

As the CIP is essentially locally applied, here is an example of the situation in our main Domestic Markets:

■ in Italy, the number of complaints increased by 18%, of which more than 10% related to the Covid-19 pandemic, and mainly focused on the issue of loan allocation. Despite this increase in volume, the percentage of customer complaints processed within the set deadlines remained at 99% in 2020 (99% in 2019 and 98% in 2018) thanks to a continuous improvement process. BNL banca commerciale (bc) also pursued its goal of reducing the amount of complaints received through cause analysis and corrective action plans set up. BNL bc took steps in 2020 to reduce complaints in the areas of fraud, account closure times and requests for copies of documents and banking contracts;

■ in Belgium, 90.9% of complaints were dealt with within the deadlines set in 2020 (91.6% in 2019), including 78.8% within five working days (compared with 76.7% in 2019). This progress is due to the greater autonomy of the sales network and the teams in charge of handling complaints, as well as the increasing number of complaints by telephone, which shortens the processing time and improves the customer experience;

■ in France, there is a specific business line for processing customer complaints. There is a dedicated team and governance arrangements for the early identification and resolution of sources of customer dissatisfaction. In 2020, the digital collection of complaints made it possible to save time and improve the flow of complaints. 92% of complaints were handled within the set timeframe. Almost 30% of alerts allowed a corrective or preventive action;

(1) MIFID: Markets in Financial Instruments Directive; IDD: Insurance Distribution Directive.