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| Sales and Service Adviser Antonio Ortin with customer, Samantha Burns. |
In 2004 we experienced many challenges that have had a significant effect on our business. Our response has been far reaching, with changes to the Board and management team, and a renewed focus on corporate culture.
Honesty and accountability are fundamental to building trusted stakeholder relationships. Measurement of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance is in line with our objective to increase and reward transparency and accountability.
The 2003 Concise Annual Report included our first Stakeholder Scorecard that discussed our performance on key non-financial indicators. This year, we are publishing our first stand-alone CSR Report that is aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative, the global standard for reporting non-financial data. The report has been externally audited.
This section only provides a brief overview of our 2004 CSR priorities while our CSR Report contains a detailed discussion of our broader non-financial performance. It is available on www.nabgroup.com, or by contacting Shareholder Services on 1300 367 647 (Australia only) or +61 3 9415 4299.
Regulatory relationships
Following the issues the National faced during the year, we have committed to improving the way we communicate and work with all our regulators.
We understand the importance of working with regulators in a trusted and transparent manner. To get the best outcome for the National and its shareholders, we take a “no surprises” approach to dealing with regulatory and regulator issues. This approach has been reinforced through the launch of our Corporate Principles, which include a commitment to deal with all our stakeholders openly, and to take accountability for all our actions. (A full outline of the Corporate Principles can be found on page 1 of this report.)
Governance
Our CSR Global Council consists of executives and management across the Group and is responsible for setting CSR strategy, priorities and policies. It reports to the Group Executive Committee and Board. A regional council in Australia and the leadership teams in New Zealand and Europe lead delivery of our regional priorities.
This structure is supported by Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) that examine specific business and operational issues. The TAC achievements in 2004 included:
- developing and rolling out an environment management system and environmental procurement statement consistent with ISO 14001 (environment)
- examining existing ethical and values processes and informing the development of globally aligned Corporate Principles and behaviours (business ethics)
- eexamining compliance with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (assessment of global standards)
Each business also facilitates ongoing stakeholder communication relevant to the communities in which they operate.
Customers
Delivering superior value to customers needs to be top of mind in everything we do, and building a trusted relationship with them is paramount to our business success.
Monitoring customer satisfaction and complaints is critical to understanding our customers’ needs. Our goal is to ensure that information on our products and services is presented in language that is clear and easy to understand. We provide access to financial services to many disadvantaged sectors of the community, including low and vulnerable income groups, people with special access needs and those who live in remote communities.
People
Our people are the key to delivering quality customer service, so we are committed to providing workplace training, guidance and support. We have flexible work practices and a range of health and well-being initiatives to support our workforce.
We encourage and facilitate employee feedback via Employee Opinion Surveys and develop ongoing initiatives to provide, and get a response to, employee feedback.
Community
In recognising the link between economic success and social prosperity, we continued to use our knowledge and resources to strengthen communities.
We have a long tradition of supporting a wide variety of social programs that empower those who are financially disadvantaged or marginalised and provide support through employee volunteer programs that are important to our stakeholders.
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| The design of the new Australian headquarters at Docklands, Melbourne, encourages openness and teamwork. |
Environment
As a global financial institution, we consider the direct and indirect environmental impacts of our decisions. Our policy commitment to the environment can be found in the Corporate Social Responsibility section of www.nabgroup.com
In 2004, we benchmarked our environmental credit risk policies against World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Safeguard Policies and found that our risk assessment policies and procedures were comparable to this standard.
International collaboration
To deliver sustainable business solutions that have a positive impact on the environment and society, we collaborate with our global peers. We are:
- a signatory to the United Nations Environment Program for Financial Institutions (UNEP Fi);
- a subscriber to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations-sponsored body that develops indicators for corporate social responsibility reporting;
- a member of the global GRI/UNEP Fi Working Group, developing environment indicators for the finance sector; and
- a member of the ‘VfU Revision’ working group, which is a group of seven international banks that are working together to develop the global best practice management toolkit and benchmark for direct impacts of finance institutions.
Click here to download a PDF of the Concise Annual Report 2004 (2,596KB)
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