Ethical business conduct is deeply rooted in our business principles and values. Our commitment to market integrity, transparency, efficiency and safety is at the core of our operations, and we aim to prevent unlawful or unethical conduct in any business relationship. Our principles, values and practices are expressed in our sustainability statements, guidelines and policies.

You can find all our statements, guidelines and policies here.

Procurement: sustainability in the supply chain

The aim of our supplier management within Corporate Purchasing at Deutsche Börse Group is to ensure compliance with basic ethical, environmental and social standards.

In line with our sustainability strategy, the Code of Conduct is obligatory for suppliers that are managed by Corporate Purchasing. By default, all new suppliers must sign the Code of Conduct of Deutsche Börse Group or, in exceptional cases, must at least provide a self-commitment. As a result, the number of suppliers who have committed to complying with our Code of Conduct is constantly increasing.

Corporate Purchasing strives for a reliable supply chain strategy and pursues a stable procurement system to ensure high quality, reliable delivery and competitive prices. When selecting suppliers and service providers, Corporate Purchasing seeks to create diversity within the supply chain and intends to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
By carefully selecting suppliers, Corporate Purchasing ensures a sustainable supply chain for new and existing business relationships with a multi-layered approach:

• Our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) is an obligatory part of our supplier contracts and fulfils the requirements of the German Supply Chain Sustainability Act (LkSG). The code contains ethical, social and ecological principles as well as the consideration of fundamental human rights.
• As part of the LkSG risk analysis, high-risk suppliers are asked to provide detailed information in the form of a self-declaration. This is evaluated by an external service provider in order to identify potential risks at an early stage and initiate appropriate countermeasures.

The strategically most important product groups (=A product groups, which account for 70% of the purchasing volume) are developed, reviewed and updated on an annual basis by Corporate Purchasing. Particularly relevant product groups are software, IT professional services, consulting, hardware and information services. 

All types of risks are taken into account by Corporate Purchasing: Supplier risks (e.g. compliance, financial stability and quality), location risks (e.g. strikes and natural disasters), country risks (e.g. political risks and sanctions) and product group risks (e.g. import regulations). A warning system has been introduced for this purpose and sends warning messages in case risks are identified. These are evaluated manually and, depending on their impact, Corporate Purchasing, together with the commissioning division, seeks active exchange with the contracting parties in order to minimize and, if necessary, eliminate risks.