Governance

We operate responsibly and with integrity. We hold each other to the highest ethical standards and expect honesty and accountability.

FCC knows that doing business with integrity, focusing on good governance, complying with policies and properly remediating negative impact will maintain our reputation as a trusted partner to our customers, our shareholder and the public.

FCC’s Code of Conduct guides how we behave as FCC representatives and in our business relationships, including acting with integrity, protecting FCC’s assets, avoiding conflicts of interest, pursuing outside activities, giving or receiving gifts, conducting business during elections and reporting violations. FCC’s Ethics Officer promotes awareness and understanding of the Code of Conduct on behalf of the CEO and the Board and ensures employees have a safe environment for disclosing potential wrongdoing in the organization.

Customers, partners and vendors play a role in ensuring integrity and FCC has policies and processes in place to support this. We lend and contract with those individuals or businesses who respect and adhere to applicable municipal bylaws, provincial and federal laws and regulations, who hold all permits and licenses required by law, and whose activities respect and care for:

• the environment by exercising reasonable care to safeguard the environment through stewardship of land, air quality and water;
• animal welfare through application of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) Codes as a foundation for animal care;
• labour standards by upholding requirements set through Canada’s labour laws including for seasonal workers; and in general, society and human rights.

When completing new lending with FCC, all customers must sign an Integrity Declaration form that they abide by these requirements. 

Information security is vital to Canadians, and controlling the collection, use and disclosure of personal information is a pressing issue facing the financial services industry. We’re committed to safeguarding our customers’ and employees’ personal information and have prioritized ongoing efforts to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of confidential and personal information.

To clarify FCC’s expectations of employees, we have policies that govern the use of information, and they are supported by procedures and guides that provide more context and direction. An integrated information risk learning and awareness program was also developed in 2022-23, which provided quarterly, mandatory learning to employees.

In 2022-23, FCC launched a new cybersecurity learning program to provide employees with additional knowledge to help avoid cybersecurity threats faced at the office, at home and on the go. This learning was mandatory for all employees and focused on providing awareness and the skills needed to help reduce the risk of cybersecurity attacks.

FCC is guided by industry-standard frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure effective capabilities and controls for safeguarding information. A third-party cybersecurity NIST assessment was completed in 2022 based on controls in place as of December 2021 and compared to 2019 results. The assessment showed that FCC’s cybersecurity maturity score has increased from the previous score in 2019. Treatment plans were created to address gaps and focus on continuous improvement.

Effective corporate governance is foundational to our success. FCC has well-established structures, policies, processes and programs to enable effective governance at a Board and management level. The organization also has formalized ESG governance, including Board and committee accountability, steering committee accountability, senior leadership accountability and business unit accountability.

The Board oversees the corporation’s ESG direction and program, and risk management policies, including FCC’s climate change direction. ESG topics also became standard agenda items for the Board’s Risk Management and Corporate Governance committees. Going forward, ESG and climate topics, disclosures and financials will be brought to the Board of Directors.