Itaú Unibanco Moves Forward on ESG Disclosure, Adopts SASB

Mark Segal June 16, 2020

Itaú Unibanco, the largest private sector bank in Brazil, and one of Latin America’s largest financial institutions announced today several milestones in advancing its ESG disclosure efforts, with the release of the company’s Integrated Annual Report 2019.

The company announced that as of this year, it will adopt Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) indicators, a voluntary report based on major ESG parameters for companies. The SASB Foundation is a non-profit organization, established with the mission to establish industry-specific ESG disclosure standards for companies. The standards set by SASB are designed to enable investors to assess the materiality of reported sustainability information, and to compare companies on these metrics on a global basis.

Itaú Unibanco also announced that the company’s Sustainability Report will now be incorporated into the Integrated Annual Report, consolidating the most significant ESG information in a single document. Accompanying the Integrated Annual Report, the company is launching the “ESG Further Information” report, as supplementary material with more in-depth information prioritized by the major ESG reporting indexes, ratings, and frameworks in Brazil and globally.

Mark founded ESG Today following a 20 year career in investment management and research. Prior to founding ESG Today, Mark worked at Delaney Capital Management (DCM) in Toronto, Canada, most recently as the firm’s head of U.S. equities. While at DCM, Mark was part of the firm’s ESG team, responsible for evaluating and tracking the sustainability factors impacting portfolio companies, and assessing the suitability of companies for portfolio inclusion. Mark also spent several years in the sell-side research industry, covering the technology and services sectors. Mark holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York, a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and is a CFA charterholder.