Cooperation with stakeholders

• Clients

ALTUM’s client service network is subordinated to the Company’s main non-financial objective to promote access to finance for business. This is achieved by maximising the availability of staff advice to all customer segments, both face-to-face and remotely.

• Clients are offered face-to-face consultations in all regions of Latvia, and employees regularly visit clients to get to know their business better.
• Efficient customer service system for clients who wish to communicate remotely. ALTUM offers fully remote customer service starting with a consultation and loan application to the decision-making.
• In order to improve remote servicing and reduce the need for paper, the staff encourages clients to use electronic signatures.
• For the second year, client satisfaction was measured by their feedback to an on-line survey. All clients of our lending services were requested to complete it. The survey asked clients to comment on the simplicity and clarity of the processes, the competence and responsiveness of the staff, the performance of the client portal, the speed of decision-making and other important aspects of client service.

• Employees

Employee involvement is essential for the improvement of ALTUM’s working environment, safety, training processes, etc., as well as for the development of new ALTUM business lines, the creation, implementation and improvement of support programmes. Employees’ views are sought periodically through employee surveys, in cooperation with their authorised representatives, working groups, hackathons, etc. 

• Shareholders and supervisory board

Shareholders

Transparency is the foundation for effective investor relations and successful communication with shareholders and other stakeholders. ALTUM regularly and timely informs shareholders and other stakeholders about the company business activities, financial performance, governance and other relevant issues, disclosing accurate, complete, objective, up-to-date and reliable information.

Shareholder involvement in decision-making contributes to achieving company’s financial and non-financial objectives and ensures its sustainability.

Supervisory board

 Supervisory board represents interests of the shareholders, oversees work of the management board, participates in strategic development of JSC ALTUM and supervises its financial and risk management. ALTUM has defined procedure for organisation of work of the supervisory board and the availability of high-quality information. This allows for an effective performance of supervisory board members and their inclusion into decision-making process..

More information on JSC ALTUM’s shareholders and supervisory board can be found here.

• Investors

Sound financial, risk and corporate governance is a prerequisite for well-organised and successful investor relations. Regular bond emissions on NASDAQ Riga since 2017 have strengthened ALTUM’s position as an active member of the capital markets.  Investor road show and consistent communication is an integral part of preparation for bond emission. Provision of high-quality quarterly financial and operational information and stock market notifications on significant operational events at ALTUM are an inherent part of investor relations. ALTUM carries out these activities with highest responsibility and diligence.

• Financial sector

ALTUM carried out its annual partner survey as a part of the engagement assessment of its cooperation partners, i.e., banks, in which very good results were achieved. In 2023: 88% of bank employees indicated that they had used ALTUM loan guarantees in 2023.

Majority of bank employees (88%) believe that ALTUM guarantees enable transactions that would not have happened otherwise. In 2023 79% considered reputation of ALTUM to be excellent or very high, while in 2022 this number amounted to 83% and in 2021 to 82%.

• Policy makers, governmental or regulatory institutions

ALTUM collaborates with ministries of Republic of Latvia to identify priorities and needs of policy-makers as well as problems facing their industries. This allows for an efficient cooperation between institutions in development of support instruments for respective industries.

• Suppliers

ALTUM works on development of supplier code of conduct to ensure collaboration compliant with environmental, social and governance aspects.

• Professional associations and educational institutions

To promote scientific and entrepreneurial cooperation, youth involvement in scientific research, quality research and commercialisation of innovative ideas, ALTUM cooperates with Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, BA school of Business and Finance, Rezekne Academy of Technologies and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.

ALTUM promotes innovative agricultural practices and their real-life application by providing financial support to the best scientific research from Latvian academy of Agriculture and Forestry.  Collaboration with BA School of Business and Finance ensures involvement of new finance professionals in developing research on availability and effectiveness of financial instruments. This allows new professionals to link their academic studies with development and current practices of financial sector.

• Non-Governmental organisations, experts and professional associations

ALTUM cooperates with industry experts and organisations to align financial product development with interests of entrepreneurs and other parties involved. ALTUM is open to advice of experts and professional organisation in creating new and improving current financial products.

Materiality aspects

To establish ALTUM’s materiality matrix for sustainability and define the ambition level for sustainable finance in the loan portfolio, stakeholder identification, mapping and a survey were carried out at the end of 2021 to identify the material aspects to be included in the sustainability content. The survey questions covered such issues as requesting to give assessment of ALTUM’s performance so far in the areas of environmental, social and corporate governance as well as their expectations of ALTUM in the areas of sustainability in the business environment, day-to-day operations, community support and development, as well as ALTUM as an employer.

ALTUM aims to update materiality matrix every three years to keep up with stakeholder expectations and comply with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).