Preparing younger generations for the responsibilities of wealth through financial education and training.
A responsible approach
We take a long-term perspective and treat society and the world around us with respect.
Our ambition is to be a leading responsible bank for client service and expertise. We strive to promote diversity, support our communities, reduce our environmental impact and help you manage your finances sustainably.
What does it mean to be a responsible private bank? Being responsible means we partner with clients to help them build lasting legacies. We seek to collaborate with colleagues by promoting diversity and inclusion. We strive to engage with our community by supporting charity partners, and we aim to protect our climate by reducing carbon emissions.
Building lasting legacies
Building lasting legacies
You have the power to change the world with the choices you make about your wealth. The right decisions will create solid financial foundations for your own family and others that can last well into the future.
We’re helping our clients organise and structure their wealth with a view to building lasting legacies.
When you make the right decisions, you create solid financial foundations for your family.
Supporting philanthropy by helping clients give effectively to the causes they care about.
Empowering women with the knowledge and confidence to prosper.
Incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors throughout our investment process.
Actively engaging with the companies and funds we invest in to encourage positive change.
Excluding controversial sectors, for example tobacco and adult entertainment, across our managed portfolios.
Supporting our colleagues
We support our colleagues so everyone knows they have a voice.
Supporting our colleagues
Companies that value diversity and collaboration tend to outperform others. When you bring people together with different backgrounds and experiences, they offer fresh perspectives and innovative ways of working, which in turn boosts creativity and productivity.
As well as ensuring our firm is diverse, we know it’s important to support our colleagues so they have the freedom to express their ideas and develop new solutions. At SG Kleinwort Hambros, our culture encourages all employees to use their voice to enact positive change.
The ways in which we recruit, develop and reward colleagues promote equality and diversity throughout our organisation.
Providing connection and inclusion through diverse employee networks.
Signing the Women in Finance Charter, a UK-government sponsored initiative to build a more gender balanced financial services industry.
Promoting equality of opportunity through the Kleinwort Hambros Gender Equality Forum.
Widening access to the banking sector through our apprenticeship and internship programmes.
Nurturing young talent through our graduate trainee scheme, as well as our Next Generation Executive Committee.
Providing flexible working practices to support sustainable and healthy lifestyles.
Promoting strong communities
Promoting strong communities
Communities provide the backbone of a healthy society. Often communities are best placed to identify and respond to any challenges they face. We support communities across our jurisdictions through a range of programmes to engender positive change.
We take our responsibilities to our communities seriously and we’ve put in place a range of initiatives to share our expertise with those around us. This includes Societe Generale UK’s flagship Young Influencers Programme, which we’ve designed to equip the next generation of talent with the skills needed to build successful careers.
With 24 hours a year of volunteering time, we encourage all colleagues to share their time, skills and experience to positively impact our local communities. We also provide financial support to our local charity partners.
We’ve put in place a range of initiatives to share our expertise with our communities.
Reducing carbon footprint
We’re all responsible for ensuring a sustainable future.
Reducing carbon footprint
World temperatures are rising because of human activity, and climate change threatens many aspects of our lives. Left unchecked, our environment will suffer catastrophic warming, with worsening droughts, greater sea level rise and mass extinction of species. We face a huge challenge but there are solutions.
We believe we are all responsible for ensuring a sustainable future, both personally as individuals and collectively as a business. We strive to reduce our carbon footprint in the following ways:
Our Responsible Investment Committee oversees integration of ESG principles into our investment process.
We are proud signatories of the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
We are members of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF).
Societe Generale is a founding member of the United Nations Environment Programme Financing Initiative (UNEP FI) Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
Our UK headquarters have been certified as one of the most sustainable buildings in London by BREEAM.
Our Responsibility Journey
In 2024, SG Kleinwort Hambros became part of the Diversity Project, joining a community of over 110 members dedicated to promoting a more inclusive culture within the industry.
As of January 2024, a new restriction has been implemented: ‘Limit exposure to companies with more than 90% revenue from conventional oil and gas production and exploration activities across direct security portfolios'. We limit exposure to companies involved in the controversial activities as outlined in the SGKH Exclusions document.
In 2023, half of the SG Kleinwort Hambros staff actively participated in volunteering programs that supported our charity allies, contributing a combined total of 3198 hours.
The combined donation from Societe Generale UK, including all its entities, and the SG UK Foundation to our charity partners in 2023 amounted to £456,299.
2023 Gender Pay Gap Statistics: The mean salary gap is 15.7%, while the mean bonus gap stands at 37%.
Since 2017, we've made progress in closing our gender pay gap, with a 10% decrease in the median hourly pay gap and a 30% reduction in the median bonus pay gap. However, a slight increase in the median pay gap in 2023, compared to 2022, is due to a larger proportion of women being recruited at junior levels, strengthening our future talent pool.
As of December 2023, 69% of clients utilizing KH Online have transitioned to paperless communication.
In 2023, Societe Generale UK established the 'Great Minds' network, a platform aimed at promoting awareness and comprehension of neurodiversity. This initiative aligns with our commitment to the 4Cs (Climate, Colleagues, Community, Culture), particularly in fostering 'Colleagues' through these collaborative networks.
Worked with an external consultant to measure the carbon impact audit of our business activities.
Our new Gibraltar Office is rated Grade A for energy efficiency & environmental impact.
As part of our commitment to increase transparency regarding responsible investing, we included ESG metrics and the carbon intensity of all our portfolios in marketing documents and client reporting.
We are proud to support Shelter, Jersey Women’s Refuge, GROW and Clubhouse as our staff selected charity partners.
Signed the UN Principles of Responsible Investing and became a member of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association.
Created a dedicated Responsible Bank Committee chaired by the CEO to review, define and implement the bank’s responsibility activities, targets and roadmap.
Together with SG Group, we raised over £925k for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people.
7,732 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) volunteering hours logged in 2020 by SG Kleinwort Hambros staff.
Our London office - One Bank Street - achieved the highest sustainability classification as a building and for interior design by BREEAM, the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings.
Launched Responsible Investment Committee.
Started excluding controversial sectors – for example thermal coal - from direct holdings of all managed portfolios.
Committed to HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, with a target of achieving 50% of women in senior roles by 2025.
Became a founding partner of the WealthiHer Network, which champions the transformation of the finance industry’s approach to women.