O-Bank Receives 5th Place Award in Medium-sized Enterprise Category of the CommonWealth Magazine "Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Awards"

(中央社訊息服務20240918 18:01:42) On September 18, 2024, O-Bank received the 5th place award in the Medium-sized Enterprise Category of the CommonWealth Magazine 2024 "Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Awards." Thanks to its implementation of sustainable business practices, O-Bank has received one of the top 10 awards for five of the past seven years. This shows that O-Bank has done a very effective job of fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities, and is determined to pursue sustainability and exert a positive influence on the economy, society, and the environment.

The CommonWealth Magazine Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Awards have been renamed, having originally been called the CommonWealth Magazine Corporate Citizen Awards. CommonWealth Magazine has been giving out its awards annually since 2007. One of Taiwan's best known programs for recognition of CSR excellence, the CommonWealth awards are conferred on the basis of various international standards and evaluation methods. Judging panels composed of field specialists select the top 130 corporate citizens and non-profits, scoring candidates on the basis of qualitative descriptions and quantitative data on their performance in the areas of corporate governance, corporate commitments, social engagement, and environmental sustainability. The list of "top 130" corporations and non-profits includes 60 large corporations with annual revenues of NT$10 billion or more, 20 mid-size companies with annual revenues of NT$10 billion or less, 25 "small giant" companies with annual revenues of NT$5 billion or less, 20 foreign companies, and 5 non-profits. O-Bank falls in the Medium-sized Enterprise Category on the basis of its operating revenues, and again received the 5th place award this year in the Medium-sized Enterprise Category after a two-year break from participating in the Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

In the area of corporate governance, O-Bank continues to build an open and transparent governance system. The Bank scored among the top 5% in the Taiwan Stock Exchange's "2023 Corporate Governance Evaluation," and was awarded an "excellent performance" certification by the Taiwan Corporate Governance Association under the CG6014 (2023) Corporate Governance System Assessment. And in the area of employee care, O-Bank is working to create a happy company, and has been included every year since 2018 as a constituent of the TWSE RAFI Taiwan High Compensation 100 Index. Also, O-Bank actively promotes gender equality. Men and women each account for half of all employees, and hold half of all executive management posts. In addition, O-Bank has adopted a gender-equal compensation plan to uphold the principle of equal pay for equal work, with regular reviews performed and concrete actions taken to implement equal compensation. O-Bank also instituted a successor cultivation plan for senior executive talent and a development program for management positions in 2023 to improve the leadership ability of supervisors and establish a pool of talent needed for sustainable business practices.

As for social participation, O-Bank continues tapping into the company's banking expertise and working with consumers to demonstrate concern for social and environmental issues. In 2020, O-Bank launched its "Social Impact Program," the first deposit program in Taiwan under which customer deposits are earmarked to fund microloans offered on concessionary terms to economically disadvantaged persons who hold proof of low income or medium-low income status, or have proof they belong to a family in hardship or support relatives who have a disability identification or certification. And beginning from this year, eligibility has been further expanded to include indigenous persons, new immigrants, and persons with disabilities, provided that they meet income eligibility requirements. O-Bank hopes to join hands with the public to tap into the power of savings and help those in need of assistance. In addition, O-Bank has continued to launch innovative new financial products that raise the awareness of consumers of the need to reduce GHG emissions. In 2022, O-Bank launched a "Consumer Spending Carbon Calculator" function, which enables consumer to use an O-Bank app to check the carbon footprint of each card purchase, and also launched a "Low-Carbon Lifestyle" debit card, which makes O-Bank the first bank in Taiwan to set cashback reward percentages based on the average carbon emissions per NT Dollar spent. For consumers who use this debit card, the more environmentally friendly they are in their spending decisions, the more cashback rewards they can expect to receive. In 2024, O-Bank has introduced a "Transportation Carbon Reduction" function to launch a Transportation Carbon Reduction Card, the first such card in Taiwan for which cashback rewards are based on GHG emission reductions. By working together with consumers, O-Bank intends to carry out a Transportation Carbon Reduction Movement to contribute to a sustainable planet.

To achieve harmonious co-existence with the natural environment, O-Bank is making a concerted effort to develop green finance and to incorporate a sustainability-oriented mindset into the running of its business. O-Bank was the first bank to adopt an internal carbon pricing system—in its internal management accounts, O-Bank has introduced a method for calculating carbon prices. In addition to calculating the carbon cost generated by the electricity consumption of each company division, O-Bank also incorporates inventory portfolio emissions into its internal pricing regime. The purpose is to guide O-Bank business units to gradually direct fewer investments and loans toward carbon-intensive industries; at the same time, O-Bank encourages its business units to do more business with environmentally friendly industrial clients, and to participate in active communication and engagement with investment and financing recipients in order to spur customers and investment recipients to get involved in the effort to reduce GHG emissions.

O-Bank Chairperson Tina Y. Lo stated: "For many years now, O-Bank has actively tapped into its power as a financial institution to pursue sustainability goals that pay balanced attention to environmental, social, and governance concerns. O-Bank is honored to receive this recognition from CommonWealth Magazine. Moving forward, as a citizen of the global community, O-Bank feels a special responsibility for doing its part to pursue sustainability, and will act on its philosophy of 'fulfilling oneself by benefiting others,' so as to serve our proper function as a financial intermediary, thereby doing all we can to create win-win situations for all our stakeholders and support sustainable development.