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The index, which assesses economic, environmental and social impact of over 175 banks globally awarded Santander an overall score of 86 out of 100.
It is the first time Santander has achieved the highest global ranking, having ranked 3rd among global banks in 2018 and 11th in 2015.
Madrid, 14 September 2019 – PRESS RELEASE
Banco Santander was today recognised as the most sustainable bank in the world following the publication of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for 2019. The index, which is the international benchmark for corporate sustainability, placed Santander as the leading bank globally for the first time, and leading bank in Europe for the second year running following an assessment of the bank’s economic, environmental and social impact.
The bank achieved a total score of 86 points out of 100, achieving the maximum score of 100 in a number of assessed areas, including tax strategy, privacy protection, environmental reporting, corporate citizenship and philanthropy, and financial inclusion.
This is the 19th year in a row that Santander has been included in the DJSI, and the ninth consecutive year that Santander is ranked number one among Spain’s banks. Only 25 financial entities were included in DJSI World’s 2018 ranking out of a total of 175 evaluated.
Santander is one of the leading providers of green finance in the world, raising close to €50 billion between 2015 and 2018. Furthermore, in 2018 the bank provided financial education to over 360,000 people globally and supported over 270,000 micro-entrepreneurs in Latin America. The bank also invests more in education than any other company according to the Varkey foundation, investing €121 million in 2018 in scholarships and university partnership.
In July 2019 Santander announced details of its responsible banking commitments, defining ten targets that support the bank’s contribution to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The targets include a new commitment to raise over €120 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2025, as well as a commitment to financially empower more than 10 million people over the same period through the expansion of the bank’s microfinance, financial education programmes and other tools to provide access to financial services.
Ana Botín, Executive Chair of Santander Group, said: “As one of largest banks in the world, we set a clear strategy 5 years ago to focus on building loyalty among our 140 million customers, transforming our bank so it is more responsible and sustainable company, and delivering for all our stakeholders, today and tomorrow in a way that is Simple, Personal and Fair. We have been fulfilling our purpose - to help people and business prosper - by actively promoting inclusive growth; supporting job creation and greater financial empowerment; and fighting climate change by supporting the transition to the green economy. To be a world leader on The Dow Jones Sustainability Index - a key benchmark for industry - shows we are successfully executing our strategy across the bank. We are not complacent - there is much more to do, and we will now build on these strong foundations”.
Santander is one of the core group of founding members of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Responsible Banking Principles, which launch in New York later this month. It is also included in other stock market indices that analyse and evaluate the efforts of companies in the area of sustainability such as the FTSE4Good or the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.