Governance: Managing the company responsibly - 23 Травня 2013

Corporate governance – Functions of Supervisory Board and Executive Board

"We are determined to bring about deep cultural change at Deutsche Bank. That is what clients, society, and investors demand. Our values are clear. We believe in fundamental integrity of dealing; in furthering the interests of our clients; in building a long-term, sustainable franchise; in disciplined use of scarce resources; and in working as a true team. Those values are locked into the way we manage, train, pay and promote our people more closely than ever before.”

Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain Co-Chairmen of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee at the Annual Press Conference on January 31, 2013

International standards

Our approach to corporate governance conforms to high international standards. It complies with the general legal regulations and stock exchange laws in Germany and the USA.

Voluntary standards

In addition, we comply with extensive voluntary guidelines and standards, notably:

World Bank standards
OECD guidelines for multinational companies
standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO)
principles of the UN Global Compact
UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
principles of the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP FI)
embargo agreements

Agreements such as the United Nations Global Compact explicitly require respect for human rights or see human rights as a fundamental principle. Deutsche Bank has paid special attention to this topic over the last few years and we have developed guidelines and processes that integrate human rights criteria into our risk management.

Values and principles

In order to reverse the loss of trust in the aftermath of the financial crisis, we have initiated a change in our corporate culture: Responsibility is the focus of our actions. Performance appraisals of our employees are based on the long-term orientation of their decisions.

We expect our employees to conduct themselves responsibly, honestly and with integrity. Our code of conduct and ethics describes our values and our minimum requirements for ethical business conduct. The Codes apply to dealings among colleagues as well as contacts with clients, business partners, competitors, authorities and shareholders. The Code of Ethics also forms the core of our policies that set out how employees and senior managers must behave in order to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Internal guidelines

We have developed a sustainability policy to support our sustainability mission statement. It serves as the foundation that anchors and drives sustainable practices in institutions such as the Sustainability Boards of our business units or the Responsible Banking Committee of our Private and Business Client division.

In our core business, environmental, social and corporate governance guidelines ensure that ESG criteria are taken into account.

Managing and promoting sustainability

Since 1999 we have had a group-wide environmental management system that is certified to the international ISO 14001 standard and integrates social and governance elements. In 2012 we were recertified for another three years.

Our sustainability measures are coordinated by the Group Sustainability Officer together with the sustainability officers of our business divisions and infrastructure units around the world. The Group Sustainability Officer is also co-chair of the interdivisional Environmental Steering Committee (ESC) and is responsible for sustainability issues in the Group Reputational Risk Committee.

In addition, our business units have their own specific governance structures. For instance, in 2012, our private client business division set up a Responsible Business Committee; in the same year our asset management business division established a European ESG Steering Committee.