World's Most Socially Responsible Banks 2022

By Ed Barredo

Banking customers around the world are demanding much more from their financial institutions than simply being safe places to keep money. With the growth of the Environmental and Social Corporate Governance (ESG) movement, customers are asking a lot of questions about their banks' corporate.

Is the bank transparent with its public disclosures? Does the bank use its resources responsibly? Does it treat its customers and employees fairly? Does the bank fight corruption? To help our readers select banks that best align with their own values, Newsweek and global data firm Statista have joined forces to name and rank for the first time "The World's Most Socially Responsible Banks."

The 175 rankings are based on a careful analysis of publicly available corporate responsibility data for 750 banks in 35 countries around the world and on a survey of 45,000 bank customers. The U.S. had the most ranked banks with 15, followed by Italy with 13 and Taiwan with 12. Two of the countries in the study (Egypt and Saudi Arabia) had no banks that qualified for the list.

We hope that you will find this ranking helpful in making your own decisions about where you bank.

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Rank

Company

HQ City

Country

Score Overall

Score Environmental Concerns

Score Social Concerns

Score Corporate Governance Concerns

1Grupo Financiero BanorteMonterreyMexico86.891.47792.82Lloyds Banking GroupEdinboroughUnited Kingdom8582.588.684.93ANZ Banking GroupMelbourneAustralia84.881.889.983.64UBSZürichSwitzerland84.489.18283.25CitigroupNew York CityUnited States of America83.890.583.278.86NatWestLondonUnited Kingdom83.691.185.575.27BankinterMadridSpain83.590.877.683.18SpareBank 1 ØstlandetHamarNorway83.371.587.791.79SchrodersLondonUnited Kingdom83.11008268.310mBankWarsawPoland82.375.272.510011PNC Financial Services GroupPittsburghUnited States of America82.289.795.961.912Intesa SanpaoloTorinoItaly81.977.582.286.913Triodos BankDriebergen-RijsenbergNetherlands81.890.579.676.314AbancaMadridSpain81.881.283.481.715SuncorpBrisbaneAustralia81.783.686.376.216OP Financial GroupHelsinkiFinland81.591.466.787.117Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK)SeoulKorea81.285.770.788.118KB Financial GroupSeoulKorea81.182.483.678.319JP Morgan Chase & CoNew York CityUnited States of America819282.369.720Sparebanken SørKristiansandNorway80.978.674.790.321Banco BMGSão PauloBrazil80.976.770.496.522Fineco BankMilanItaly80.884.183.375.923SwedbankStockholmSweden80.676.479.986.524BradescoSão PauloBrazil80.480.572.489.125TD Canada TrustTorontoCanada80.391.983.666.426MUFG BankTokyoJapan80.295.461.584.227American ExpressNew York CityUnited States of America80.19380.368.128Berner KantonalbankBernSwitzerland80.191.783.366.229INGAmsterdamNetherlands8076.58183.330MediobancaMilanItaly79.871.581.387.531DGB Financial GroupDaeguKorea79.790.964.484.432KBCBrusselsBelgium79.567.484.787.233RabobankUtrechtNetherlands79.591.661.486.134Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA)BilbaoSpain79.473.388.977.135DBSSingaporeSingapore79.477.883.777.536DNB GroupOsloNorway79.38273.583.237Canadian Imperial Bank of CommerceTorontoCanada79.390.585.263.138Commonwealth Bank GroupSydneyAustralia79.282.990.265.439DesjardinsLévisCanada78.67980.377.440CajamarAlmeríaSpain78.579.783.87341NAB (National Australia Bank)MelbourneAustralia78.482.282.271.542MacquarieSydneyAustralia78.389.781.464.743Royal Bank of CanadaTorontoCanada78.283.486.365.944BKS BankKlagenfurt am WörtherseeAustria7877.187.97045BarclaysLondonUnited Kingdom77.889.967.377.146Shinhan Financial GroupSeoulKorea77.769.286.178.647Woori Financial GroupSeoulKorea77.681.178.574.148Sparebanken VestBergenNorway77.464.874.993.549HandelsbankenStockholmSweden77.47773.382.650First Abu Dhabi BankAbu DhabiUnited Arab Emirates77.376.961.893.9

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LICENSING INFORMATION
If you are listed above, you can find out more about the licensing options visiting the Statista website.

METHODOLOGY

The "World's Most Socially Responsible Banks" focuses on the three dimensions of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG). The ranking focuses on a holistic view of corporate responsibility that considers all three pillars of ESG. In total, 175 banks have been identified as the "World's Most Socially Responsible Banks."
The analysis is based on two metrics:
▸ Objective data from key perfor-mance indicator (KpI) research (about 30 KpIs from the three pillars of ESG) including KpIs specific to the banking sector.
▸ ESG reputation of a bank from an extensive consumer survey.The approach does not focus on sustainable investments and social banking.

The analysis follows a 6-step process to create the ranking:
1- Identification of relevant banks
2- Surveying about 45,000 participants on their opinion of banks on social responsibility
3- Collecting of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and financial reports of relevant banks
4- Research of KPIs that represent important aspects of a bank's ESG performance using an online access panel. The survey was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022.

Consumers were surveyed on their perception of banks CSR-activities within the country they live in. Structural differences in the response behavior of respondents from different countries were harmonized.

SURVEY STRUCTURE
1- Selection of banks that the respondent is familiar with in their respective country.
2- Surveying participants perception of the banks general engagement in the area of corporate social responsibility as well as specific aspects of ESG.

CSR REPORTS
Research was conducted to identify which of the banks published a CSR report or something similar. Only banks that published such a report could be considered for the research of KPIs. The researched reports must include ESG data for 2020 to ensure comparability.

Research of KPIs: About 30 KPIs across the three areas of ESG were researched per bank. The KPIs were defined so that they could be applied and compared across banks regardless of headquarters or size.

The ESG data was researched mainly from CSR reports or similar as well as other public sources (e.g., CDP, Science based targets initiative). For financial metrics, data was collected from financial reports and the banker Database. In addition to the research, an email was sent to all banks in scope to give them the opportunity to validate the researched KPIs.

Researched data is either binary or numerical. In all cases where banks could not provide data in a field that is researched and relevant for ESG, they were scored 0 for the relevant KPIs (non-disclosure or non-activity failure). For a complete list of the KPIs researched for each bank in the three pillars of ESG, go to www.newsweek.com/msrb-2023.

WEB MONITORING
For each bank that was to be awarded, a detailed check for scandals was carried out. Banks that had recently been involved in large ESG-relevant scandals or legal proceedings were excluded from the analysis.
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the accompanying sanctions, all banks doing new business in Russia were excluded from the ranking. The public announcement of the banks as well as a list from the Yale School of management (www.yalerussianbusinessretreat.com) were considered in the selection. However, without explicit information on this issue, the banks under consideration could not be excluded from the ranking. Respectively, this screening was performed only on the basis of publicly available and verified information.

SCORING
For every bank with a CSR report, a score was calculated based on KPI performance and the consumer survey. Each pillar of ESG accounts for one third of the final score. In each of the three pillars a score of 100 (for the best performing bank) could be achieved. Within each pillar of ESG the result of the KPI research was weighted 70 percent and the survey result was weighted 30 percent.
The 175 banks with the highest overall score were awarded as the "World's most Socially responsible Banks." The ranking represents banks from 33 countries.

The selection of the banks and the definition of the evaluation criteria were carried out according to independent journalistic criteria of Newsweek and Statista. The evaluation was carried out by the statistics and market research company Statista. Newsweek and Statista make no claim to the completeness of the banks examined.

The ranking is composed exclusively of banks eligible regarding the scope described here. A mention in the ranking is a positive recognition based on research of publicly available data sources and an extensive consumer survey. The ranking is the result of an elaborate process which, due to the interval of data-collection and analysis, is a reflection of official ESG data from 2020. Furthermore, events following July 18, 2022 were not the subject of this survey. As such, the results of this ranking should not be used as the sole source of information for future deliberations. The information provided in this ranking should be considered in conjunction with other available information on sustainability. The quality of companies that are not included in the ranking is not disputed.

You can download the full methodology here.