Intrum presents its Annual and Sustainability Report for 2019
Today, Intrum Group publishes the Annual and Sustainability Report for 2019. For Intrum, 2019 was yet another eventful year. We took several important steps to further consolidate our market-leading position in Europe
Strategic acquisition in Greece
We continued our expansion where the foremost event during the year was the long-term strategic partnership that we established with Piraeus Bank in Greece. We added 1,300 new colleagues and created a leading credit management platform on which to further build our presence in Greece.
Simplified organisation and increased efficiency
On January 1st, 2020, we introduced a new organisational structure that better reflects our current operations. The four geographical regions were discontinued and a third business area “Strategic Markets” was established alongside Credit Management Services and Portfolio Investments. The new business area includes Greece, Italy and Spain, which are large and important markets with similar operations based on partnerships with major financial institutions. These changes are designed to simplify internal reporting and reduce costs, as well improving the external transparency related to the development of our three large southern European markets.
As part of our efforts to integrate and centralise common functions, we also implemented an efficiency programme during the autumn 2019. In parallel, efforts continued to centralise and standardise processes, work methods and systems. All of this is designed to benefit from Intrum’s size and to continue being able to meet client expectations, enhance efficiency and further increase profitability.
Improved financing structure
During the year, we strengthened our financial position with a number of bond issues and an increased credit facility. This has enabled us to achieve a more predictable and improved maturity profile, while also securing a reassuring liquidity buffer.
Clear governance of sustainability matters
We intensified our efforts to integrate sustainability into our business and we implemented a clear governance structure to address these matters. The Board of Directors remaining the highest decision-making body, followed by Group Management which is responsible for strategy on sustainability.
To successfully integrate sustainability into the day-to-day operations, an internal group of representatives of the relevant functions, business lines and countries was established. The group’s focus is to secure support for targets and strategies in the area of sustainability and to pursue these issues throughout the organisation.
Three areas of sustainability guiding our work
The three general areas continues to drive and strengthen our sustainability work forward.
We shall:
- Enable sustainable payments
- Be a trusted and respected actor
- Grow by making a difference
These areas form the foundation of our work to create value for our different stakeholders, they are closely related to our identity and we are integrating them into the day-to-day operations.
Our focus areas incorporates the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact. Each focus area is also linked to selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) within the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 that we can make an important contribution to.
The Swedish and English printed version of the Annual and Sustainability Report 2019 will be available from the 6th of May and can be ordered below.