We can tell you that Westpac is Australia’s
first bank with almost 200 years’ experience in Australia and more than 40
years in Asia. Its main objective is to work seamlessly across geographies to
meet the needs of their customers based in Asia or doing business in Asiaa.

 Their
purpose proves that they have specialist teams across a range of
sectors to ensure they understand the individual needs of their corporate and
institutional banking customers other than sustainable programs.

Organizational
structure of Westpac

 
Their operations comprise the key customer-facing business divisions
operating under multiple brands serving around 12.8 million customers.

Westpac Recognitions include:

No.1 Best Local Trade Finance Bank in Australia 

No.2
Ranked as the world’s most sustainable bank

No.3
one of the 20 Safest Banks in the World

now let us explain you the sustainability and
its relation to Westpac

after
the industrial revolution in 1970’s environmental sciences emerged as a discipline
and since then it is conveying an important message to the humans for their
survival in most better conditions.

according to environmental
sciences sustainability is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.
And so, does the sustainable business refers to green business or enterprise
having minimum or less environmental hazardous effect globally or locally.

But eventually Australian
banks were faced with backlashes in the early 1990s as they were closing their
rural branches and charging exorbitant fees and 2014 was the year when Westpac
faced a lot of criticism for creating unfriendly environment activities.

 
 

Moreover when Westpac Group
released its 2017 Sustainability Performance
Report it provided insights into Westpac Group’s
sustainability performance across a series of social, environmental and
economic performance indicators over the 2017 financial year, as well as an
analysis of the current and emerging issues that matter most to Westpac’s stakeholders.
For more details we can tell you that Brian Hartzer, Westpac Group CEO
said ”2017 was a big year in progressing the Group’s sustainability agenda, as
we worked with our many stakeholders on issues that matter, including climate
change, accessibility, financial inclusion, human rights and reconciliation.”
  “As we reflect on our performance against the actions set out in our
2013-17 Sustainability Strategy, we have made strong progress,” he said.

Their
2017 Sustainability Strategy performance highlights:
(1) The last year marks the conclusion of Westpac Group’s five-year 2013-17
Sustainability Strategy. (2) The Group’s 2017 Sustainability Performance Report
details performance highlights against the Strategy’s three priority areas,
including the following: 
 

They are Embracing societal
change through:

·        
It Achieved goal of 50% women in leadership
roles by 2017.

·        
They Published Updated Human Rights Position
Statement and 2020 Action Plan and released first statement in response to the
UK Modern Slavery Act.

·        
St. George bank accredited as Australia’s
first dementia friendly bank by Dementia Australia.

·        
Westpac Exceeded 2015-2017 Reconciliation
Action Plan (RAP) commitment of recruiting 500 new Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander employees by 2017 and directed focus to retention and development in their
2018-2020 RAP.

 

Also, Westpac hi lights
Environmental solutions

·        
Released its third Climate Change Position
Statement and Action Plan, including a target for lending to climate change
solutions of 10 billion dollars by 2020 and 25 dollars billion by 2030.

·        
Increased the proportion of renewable energy
financing from 45% to 65% between 2011 and 2017 in the total electricity
generation portfolio.

·        
Launched industry-first sustainability
scoring capability for BT Panorama, which shows how investments on the ASX200
(and over 200 managed funds) rate against environmental, social and governance
factors.

·        
Westpac Issued offshore currency Climate Bond
for US 50 million dollars, a first among the Australian banks.

 

 Need of Better financial futures

·        
They Increased lending to the social and
affordable housing sector to 1.32 billion dollars.

·        
Introduced a number of new products and
services to meet the changing needs of customers, including Westpac Life and
Bump savings accounts, and a new basic credit card, Westpac Lite, with an
interest rate of 9.9%.

·        
Released first Financial Inclusion Action
Plan.

·        
Westpac Made available close to 475,000 dollars
in microfinance loans with Many Rivers Microfinance to support Indigenous
Australian business owners.

Commonwealth bank of Australia and their sustainability strategy

It
is considered as a competitor of Westpac that is not just working for the
security and wellbeing of people but also for the sustainability strategy. The
total amount it paid for the energy project is 2.8 billion dollars and 1.02 billion dollars on climate bond
projects respectively. Another tremendous investment of it includes 16 million
dollars in education sector according to the 2017 annual report.

Likewise,
National Australia bank

 also played a vital role according to the
interest of stakeholders and environment friendly projects.

Approach of NAB:
National Australia Bank’s goal is to make a positive and lasting impact in the
lives of their customers, people, shareholders and communities, and our
environment. This is crucial to achieve because their vision includes becoming
Australia and New Zealand’s most respected bank.

Credibility of NAB

597 million dollars is the amount
that National Australia Bank invested for socially responsible investments in
Australia in the year 2017 (National Australia Bank Limited Annual
Sustainability Report, 2017) and 2.2 billion dollars were invested in green and
social bonds.

ESG RISK MANAGEMENT

Our ESG Risk Principles provide an
overarching framework to integrate ESG risk considerations into their
day-to-day decision-making. They are aligned to national Australia bank’s
values and vision. ESG risk is not managed as a separate risk category but is
integrated across their material risks. For example, operational risk (across NAB’s
business operations and purchasing decisions) and its credit risk assessment
and due diligence processes

Factors for the sustainability program by NAB and its need:

No.1 ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

No.2 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

No.3 GOVERNANCE RESPONSIBILITY

            Also, Additional themes of importance by NAB are:

            No1. Climate change

            No.2 Biodiversity loss and ecosystem
degradation

           No.3 the
Resource scarcity

Comparison

By comparing the three of
four major banks in Australia we can conclude that Westpac is working well and
hard for the sustainability projects and making an awareness regarding it while
receiving the dow jones sustainability award fourth time in a row at the same
time. Comparing the
bank’s performance with that of its competitors, it comes to knowledge that
each of them have pre-established goals and have set some standards with
regards to energy efficiency and sustainability strategies.
The only significance of commonwealth bank of Australia and national
bank of Australia is that the two are investing in sustainability strategy and not
the opposite to it unlike Westpac who itself is helping to make betterment in
our ecosystem but spending in un sustainable projects as well.