The world's local bank
HSBC named best bank in ethical business survey
15 January 2007
HSBC has come top in the second annual ethical reputation rankings published by Geneva-based consultancy Covalence. As part of the survey, over two hundred multinational corporations were examined across ten sectors and scores awarded by measuring positive and negative news-flow over a five year period. HSBC was the best performing bank, achieving a clean sweep in the three categories: 'Best Ethical Quote Score', 'Best Ethical Quote Progress', and 'Best Reported Performance'. Overall, it placed sixth across all sectors.
Francis Sullivan, HSBC's Adviser on the Environment, commented: "The Covalence report is an important barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field and HSBC is delighted to have been recognised in this way."
Today's announcement rounds off an excellent year for HSBC in the area of Corporate Responsibility. Highlights include:
- January 2006: HSBC becomes the first major bank to go 'carbon neutral' following a three month trial. It lowers its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to zero by reducing energy use, buying green electricity and then offsetting the remaining CO2 emissions by investing in carbon projects.
- June 2006: HSBC is named as overall winner in the first FT Sustainable Banking Awards, in recognition of its leadership in merging social, environmental and business objectives. The awards, launched by the FT in association with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, drew 90 entries from 48 financial institutions.
- September 2006: HSBC is leading the way in its response to the threat of climate change, according to a report issued by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).The world's local bank took top spot in the Banks and Diversified Financials Sector of the CDP's latest Climate Leadership Index.
Media inquiries to Neil Brazil on 020 7992 1572 or at neilbrazil@hsbc.com
Note to editors
Covalence
Covalence's award winning ethical quotation system is a reputation index based on quantifying qualitative data, which are classified according to 45 criteria, including labour standards, waste management, product social utility or human rights policy. The system integrates thousands of documents found among media, enterprise, NGO and other sources to produce an ethical quote score for each firm.
Covalence closely monitors 10 sectors including 202 companies that are classified as having the largest market capitalisations in the Dow Jones World Index. The company was founded in Geneva in 2001 by six experts from the worlds of social science and finance.
For further information, please log on to: www.covalence.ch or contact: Antoine Mach, Director, +41 (0) 22 800 08 55.
HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc serves over 125 million customers worldwide through some 9,500 offices in 76 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$1,738 billion at 30 June 2006, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as 'the world's local bank'.
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