Social responsibility

We’re proud to be named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® 2014—2020.

World's Most Ethical Companies

We’re a multi-year recipient of the World’s Most Ethical Companies evaluation, meaning our members can be confident that we’re working in their best interests.

  • The World’s Most Ethical Companies (WME) evaluation is run by the Ethisphere Institute in the US. The recognition ‘honours superior achievements in transparency, integrity, ethics and compliance, and underscores an honoree’s commitment to leading with integrity and prioritising ethical business practices’.

    Performance

    External benchmarking and independent third party evaluation provides transparency, accountability, and results of the Bank’s performance in responsible practices, across the whole organisation. WME evaluation is a test of our ethical business credentials and is one of a suite of performance benchmarks the Bank undertakes.

    Our commitment is to be a world leading ethical business, and WME is one of the primary methods to measure this.

    The Bank has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for seven years in a row (2014-2020).

    The Bank submits extensive evidence; for example we provide over 300 separate documents. Participation in WME is entirely voluntary and falls under no legal requirement.

    Methodology

    The WME assessment process ‘includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organisations across industries and around the globe’.

    Visit the Ethisphere website for more information

    Our aim is to be the most socially responsible bank in Australia. The Royal Commission has shown what happens when you lose sight of the customers’ interests, but for 52 years we’ve been focused solely on them. That’s a big reason we’re recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies.
    Steve James, CEO