Corporate values
We integrate ethical and environmental considerations into our business model. Treating colleagues and clients, as well as the societies and environments in which we work, with respect and a long-term perspective is central to our philosophy and our success. Our corporate values form the foundation of our business ethics. The following principles guide the operations of the ProCredit institutions:
Our Code of Conduct
Transparency
We aim to provide transparent information to our customers, to the general public and to our employees.
For example, it is our objective to ensure that customers fully understand the terms of the contracts they conclude with us, and we engage in financial education in order to raise public awareness of the dangers of intransparent financial offers.
A culture of open communication
We aim to communicate openly, fairly and constructively with each other. For example, we deal with conflicts at work in a professional manner, prioritising working together to find solutions.
Social responsibility and tolerance
We offer our clients comprehensive, well-founded advice through our Business Client Advisers. Before offering loans, we assess the client’s economic and financial situation, their business potential and their repayment capacity in order to provide them with appropriate financial services and to avoid over-indebting them. In addition, we are committed through our policies to treating all customers and employees with fairness and respect, regardless of their ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, religion or belief.
We also evaluate requests for loans in terms of the applicant’s compliance with our corporate values and ethical principles. No loans are issued to enterprises or individuals if there is any reason to believe that they make use of unsafe, environmentally harmful or morally objectionable forms of labour, in particular child labour.
High professional standards
Our employees adhere to professionalism, receive relevant training and take responsibility for the quality of their work, striving to grow further professionally and individually.
Personal integrity and commitment
In line with our Code of Conduct, employees of the ProCredit group are required to communicate with honesty, and any breaches of this principle are swiftly and rigorously dealt with.
Together with our mission statement, these principles represent the backbone of our corporate culture and are actively applied in our day-to-day operations. They are reflected in the ProCredit Code of Conduct, which translates the group’s principles into practical guidelines for our staff. To make sure that new employees fully understand all of the principles, our induction training programme includes sessions specifically dedicated to the Code of Conduct. Regular refresher training sessions help to ensure that employees remain aware of and committed to our established ethical standards and are kept abreast of new issues and developments which have an ethical dimension.