Deutsche Börse Group’s Prime Standard offers companies access to the capital market via a premium segment. Companies in this segment meet international transparency requirements with regard to their investors.

Premium segment for shares

The Prime Standard for shares is part of the EU-regulated market and provides access to companies which would like to attract international investors: in addition to the legal minimum requirements of the EU-regulated market, companies listed in this segment must also meet international transparency requirements. Admittance to the Prime Standard for shares is a prerequisite for joining the selection indices DAX^®, MDAX^®, TecDAX^® and SDAX^®.

Premium segment for corporate bonds

The Prime Standard for corporate bonds allow large and medium-sized companies which operate internationally basis the possibility to raise debt capital via Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (FWB^®, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange). In order to do so, companies must meet increased transparency requirements before and after bond issuance.

On individual company master data sheets, Deutsche Börse’s online information portal for sustainable securities provides market participants not only with financial data but also with sustainability key figures for 1,800 companies from all over the world included in STOXX^® indices.

Through the information portal for sustainable securities, Deutsche Börse offers ...

• environmental, social and governance (ESG) data for around 1,800 companies: information on the sustainable management of resources (environment), criteria for socially responsible behaviour (social) as well as aspects of corporate governance.
• CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) data evaluating the transparency and performance of measures taken by 1,800 companies with regard to climate change.
• the possibility to select companies based on ESG criteria or on the weighting of these criteria.
• information on sustainability indices as well as a selection of funds and certificates.

In 2018, Deutsche Börse’s Accelerating Sustainable Finance initiative and the Green Finance Cluster of the Hessian Ministry of Economics joined forces to create the Green and Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany. The cluster is an association of leading financial institutions. In close collaboration within its own sector and with the real economy, politics, civil society and science, it is dedicated to the development and implementation of a strategic concept for the establishment of a sustainable financial economy.

As a central “interface” between capital market participants, Deutsche Börse Group regards it as part of its responsibility to create a platform which explains various environmental, social and governance (ESG) approaches. Deutsche Börse thus enables market participants and the public to gain an overview of different transparency initiatives and to exchange ideas with others.

Cooperation with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)

As a member of the IIRC German Roundtables, Deutsche Börse actively contributes to shaping the framework of a new integrated reporting. The IIRC’s aim is to develop an integrated reporting system with an international focus, which ensures that a company’s key facts and figures are communicated clearly, concisely and transparently.

Cooperation with the CDP

As part of its partnership with the CDP, the information portal for sustainable securities has been providing climate data from roughly 1,800 companies around the world, free of charge, since April 2012. The data facilitates a direct comparison of companies’ carbon emissions.

With a view to the national application of the EU guideline on corporate sustainability reporting that will came into effect in 2017, Deutsche Börse Group has positioned its ESG Best Practice Guide as a guideline for companies affected by this regulation at various dialogue events with policy makers, business leaders and representatives from civil society. The Guide presents internationally valid reporting methods including selected best-practice examples and, by giving seven recommendations, offers a structured approach to an intelligent and above all efficient way of dealing with the topic of sustainability in capital market communications. This makes it particularly suitable for smaller and medium-sized companies as well as for newcomers to reporting. The Guide, which is reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date, therefore supplements Deutsche Börse Group’s range of services for issuers.

The corporate report presents Deutsche Börse Group’s business activities in a transparent manner. The current report provides information on the course of the financial year while also giving a thorough overview of the company’s measures taken with a view to social responsibility and sustainability. By integrating the non-financial statement into the combined management report, Deutsche Börse Group not only adheres to statutory requirements but shows non-financial key figures in context alongside traditional financial key figures.