Material issues and correlation with the key ESG topics of the 2022-2025 Business Plan

We are aware that the constantly evolving social and economic context and the ever-increasing awareness of consumers require every company to be able to cope with new dynamic scenarios. For this reason we believe a structured approach to stakeholder involvement is necessary to orient the company strategy on issues potentially relevant for the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and its stakeholders.

Non-financial and sustainability reporting focuses on relevant aspects that reflect the impacts, positive or negative, actual or potential, generated by the activities of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group on the economy, the environment and people, including impacts on their human rights , capable of significantly influencing the perception of its stakeholders.

These aspects, in addition to being the center of non-financial and sustainability reporting, are also fundamental for the identification and management of risks and opportunities, also contributing to orienting the company strategy on issues relevant to the business and the Stakeholders. 

In continuity with the approach adopted for 2022 reporting, the 2023 materiality analysis process of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group was conducted in compliance with the GRI Standards - Universal Standards (2021). In particular, the mapping and analysis processes of the impacts of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group in the economic, environmental and social spheres, including human rights, were further explored, in line with the metrics defined by the GRI 2021 Standards and also taken up by the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). 

The material themes are identified through a complex process that includes:

• the mapping of the stakeholders of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group; 
• the mapping of the positive and negative, actual and potential impacts on the economy, the environment and people, including human rights, generated by the activities of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group based on the analysis of various sources such as national/international documentation in the context ESG regulations, the documentation relevant to the sector in which the Intesa Sanpaolo Group operates, the public documents of the Group's main competitors, at a national and international level.

Furthermore, commitments, projects and activities carried out by Intesa Sanpaolo in the ESG field were considered, including the strategic projects included in the 2022-2025 Business Plan, as well as specific initiatives and policies in the ESG field. The analysis led to the refinement of potentially relevant impacts for the Group:

• the assessment of potentially relevant impacts through an internal analysis based on metrics aligned with the requirements of the GRI Standards 2021 and taken up by the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards - ESRS reporting standards; - Stakeholder engagement, i.e. the involvement of the Sustainability Managers of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, reference figures for ESG issues identified for each Division and Governance Area, and of its stakeholders 
• aggregation of the impacts mapped into macro-areas of impact, traced back to the topics potentially relevant for the Group and definition and prioritization of the topics based on the consolidation of the outcomes deriving from the internal analysis and stakeholder engagement 
• activities validation of the list of material topics. 

The impacts assessed through internal analysis and stakeholder engagement were then aggregated into macro-areas of impact and traced back to the topics potentially relevant for the Intesa Group. Finally, the analysis of the results of the two evaluation activities made it possible to define a prioritized list of themes, represented below alongside the key ESG themes of the new 2022-2025 Business Plan.