Human Rights

Governance​

Human rights compliance is of great importance to our Board and top management. The ultimate responsibility for human rights lies with the Board of Directors and the Group Sustainability and Governance Committee. At the management level, the Group Chief Sustainability Officer is responsible for managing human rights risk as a key element of Sustainability Risk at CIMB.

Our Group Human Rights Policy

The policy is to provide clarity and transparency on human rights management across the Group. This is to ensure consistency between internal practices and external expectations, including legal and regulatory obligations and voluntary commitments to respect and protect human rights. Within the broader scope of human rights, we focus on issues and risks that are most pertinent to our operations and activities. The policy has been rolled out across the Group in 2023. Read our Group Human Rights Policy here.

Commitments and Frameworks​

We commit to uphold and comply with:​

i. The International Bill of Human Rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR);​

ii. UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;​

iii. ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.​

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With regards to labour rights, we commit to the following: ​

i. Avoid causing or contributing to labour rights violations as per national legislation standards. In the event where there is a discrepancy between national, regional, and international standards, we will engage with stakeholders to explore approaches that respect international standards.​

ii. Respect the rights of our employees, including:​

a. freedom of representation; ​

b. right to collective bargaining;​

c. a safe and healthy work environment, including safety from any forms of harassment such as sexual harassment;​

d. fair recruitment and other people practices;​

e. preventing modern slavery; and​

f. respecting regulations on minimum wage and maximum working hours.​

iii. Eliminate discrimination in the workplace and promote diversity and inclusion.​

Our framework further adopts principles and recommendations laid out in recognised international, regional and local frameworks, including:​

i. The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative Principles for Responsible Banking;​

ii. UN Sustainable Development Goals;​

iii. Bank Negara Malaysia’s Value-Based Intermediation Financing and Investment Impact Assessment Framework and Association of Banks in Malaysia’s ESG Principles​

Our Policy in Action ​

The integration of human rights considerations into our financing procedures has become a requirement and a key element in our risk assessment process. Where there is non-compliance with human rights standards, clients are requested to implement corrective action plans.​

We conduct Sustainability Due Diligence on our vendors and suppliers as well as requiring vendors to acknowledge CIMB's Vendor Code of Conduct. Guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we assess actual and potential adverse human rights impacts and how we may have directly caused, contributed, or linked to an abuse of rights within our supply chain.​

We continue to maintain a strong emphasis and commitment to ensure that the rights of our employees are protected. This includes their freedom of association as well as regulatory labour rights.

Expanding our current grievance mechanism to include reports on human rights violations, which will be protected by our Whistleblowing Policy. If investigations reveal that CIMB has caused or contributed to human rights violations, we will take steps to rectify the situation. ​