What the bank specifically wants to know
A bank financing a metal or manufacturing company typically requests information on two things: how much energy your production processes consume and where your raw materials come from. This is no coincidence. Smelting, rolling, casting, welding and coating are energy-intensive steps, and the metals you process — steel, aluminium, copper — have supply chains that can extend beyond Europe. For a financier, these are the two areas where risks become visible most quickly: rising energy costs and a chain vulnerable to disruption or reputational damage.
The questions themselves often resemble what your major customer already asked, but the reason behind them differs. A customer wants your figures to complete their own reporting. A bank or insurer weighs your figures in assessing credit or premiums. This distinction matters to understand what is urgent and what can wait.
Why energy carries such weight in metal processing
In most SME sectors, the bulk of questionnaires concern personnel and the usual scope 1 and 2 figures: fuel, natural gas and electricity. In metal and manufacturing, another layer is added because energy consumption is directly linked to the production process itself. A furnace, a press or a galvanising line consumes structurally more than an office building, and that consumption fluctuates with order volume. A financier therefore wants to see not just total energy consumption, but also how it relates to production volume — because that indicates something about efficiency and exposure to energy prices.
You typically obtain these figures from the same documents you already have: your energy bill, possibly supplemented by a breakdown from your energy supplier on consumption per connection. Those who have already had to collect such data for another obligation recognise the work. identified by sector which information is relevant provides an overview of what that includes, also outside the banking context.
Why the source of raw materials matters
The second point of focus is the supply chain of raw materials. Metal rarely travels directly from the mine to your production floor; there are smelters, traders and sometimes multiple borders in between. A financier may ask whether you know which suppliers your key metals come from and whether known risks are associated with them. This is not a request for a full supply chain analysis as large listed companies must conduct — for an SME it usually amounts to reasonable effort: knowing who your main suppliers are and whether they document anything about it themselves.
It is important to maintain the distinction between what a bank requests as part of its own risk assessment and what you are legally required to report yourself. For the latter, a limit has applied since March 2026: a reporting company may not require a supplier with one thousand employees or fewer to provide more information than what is included in the voluntary EU standard for unlisted SMEs. This limit applies to a customer's questionnaire; a bank does not automatically fall under it, because a financing relationship has a different legal basis. If in doubt about what applies in your case, the competent supervisory authority or a lawyer is the appropriate party to assess that.
How this relates to what you already provide
Many metal companies already provide data for energy efficiency obligations or track fuel consumption for their vehicle fleet. These documents are often also usable for a banking questionnaire, provided you summarize them appropriately. The difference lies mainly in the level of detail: a bank sometimes asks slightly more specifically about production processes than a standard energy consumption report contains.
To see how this works out for your company, you can get a first indication from a few questions from where you stand. Anyone wanting to know how esgia retrieves and records data from your own documents will find that explained on the methodology page.
What you can prepare in advance
Without getting ahead of a specific request, it is practical to have two things in order: an overview of energy consumption per process or production line, and a list of the main metal suppliers with their country of origin. Both can be compiled from the documents you already have, and both appear in virtually every banking or insurance-related question. Answers to frequently asked questions about what is and is not covered by these questionnaires are collected on the frequently asked questions page.
Want to know if your situation requires specific attention, or just get a first impression without obligations? The quick scan is free and takes a few minutes, and the topic page provides a curated overview for each situation.