2020 Universal registration document and annual financial report - BNP PARIBAS 633
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A COMMITTED BANK: INFORMATION CONCERNING THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CIVIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BNP PARIBAS
Report by one of the Statutory Auditors, appointed as an independent third party, on the non-financial information statement included in the management report
Nature and scope of our work
The work described below was performed in accordance with the provisions of articles A. 225-1 et seq. of the French Commercial Code determining the conditions in which the independent third party performs its engagement and with the professional guidance of the French Institute of Statutory Auditors ( CNCC ) applicable to such engagements, as well as with ISAE 3000 Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information.
Our procedures allowed us to assess the compliance of the Statement with regulatory provisions and the fairness of the Information:
■ we obtained an understanding of the entity s activities the description of the social and environmental risks associated with its activities and, where applicable, the impact of these activities on compliance with human rights and anticorruption and tax evasion legislation, as well as the resulting policies and their outcomes;
■ we assessed the suitability of the Guidelines with respect to their relevance, completeness, reliability, objectivity and understandability, with due consideration of industry best practices, where appropriate;
■ we verified that the Statement includes each category of social and environmental information set out in article L. 225-102-1 III, as well as information set out in the second paragraph of article L. 22-10-36 regarding compliance with human rights and anticorruption and tax evasion legislation;
■ we verified that the Statement includes an explanation for the absence of the information required under article L. 225-102-1 III, 2;
■ we verified that the Statement presents the business model and the principal risks associated with the entity s activities, including where relevant and proportionate, the risks associated with its business relationships and products or services, as well as its policies, measures and the outcomes thereof, including key performance indicators;
■ we verified, where relevant with respect to the principal risks or the policies presented, that the Statement provides the information required under article R. 225-105 II;
■ we assessed the process used to identify and confirm the principal risks;
■ we asked what internal control and risk management procedures the entity has put in place;
■ we assessed the consistency of the outcomes and the key performance indicators used with respect to the principal risks and the policies presented;
■ we verified that the Statement covers the scope of consolidation, i.e., all the companies included in the scope of consolidation in accordance with article L. 233-16 within the limitations set out in the Statement;
■ we assessed the data collection process implemented by the entity to ensure the completeness and fairness of the Information;
■ for the key performance indicators and other quantitative outcomes (listed in the appendix) that we considered to be the most important, we implemented:
■ analytical procedures to verify the proper consolidation of the data collected and the consistency of any changes in those data,
■ substantive tests, using sampling techniques, in order to verify the proper application of the definitions and procedures and reconcile the data with the supporting documents. This work was carried out on a selection of contributing entities (BNP Paribas SA (France), including DRSE, Group Human resources, IMEX and GS2S; Arval (France); Arval Belgium BNPP Fortis Belgium, BNPP Fortis Factor, BP2S Belgium, CIB (Belgium); BNPP CIB Canada; BGL, IP and CIB (Luxemburg); BNP Paribas (Switzerland) SA) and covers between 27% and 100% of the consolidated data relating to the key performance indicators and outcomes selected for these tests;
■ we referred to documentary sources and conducted interviews to corroborate the qualitative information (measures and outcomes) that we considered to be the most important;
■ we assessed the overall consistency of the Statement based on our knowledge of all the consolidated entities.
We believe that the work carried out, based on our professional judgement, is sufficient to provide a basis for our limited assurance conclusion; a higher level of assurance would have required us to carry out more extensive procedures.
Means and resources
Our work was carried out by a team of 7 people between October 2020 and March 2021 and took a total of 12 weeks.
We were assisted in our work by our specialists in sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. We conducted approximatively ten interviews with people responsible for preparing the Statement, representing the CSR Delegation and the Direction of Human Resources.
Conclusion
Based on our work, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the non-financial information statement is not in accordance with the applicable regulatory provisions and that the Information, taken as a whole, is not presented fairly in accordance with the Guidelines.
Neuilly-sur-Seine / 2 March 2021
One of the Statutory Auditors
PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit
French original signed Patrice Morot
Partner
French original signed Sylvain Lambert
Partner, Sustainability
