A majority of the India’s leading private banks have been consistently disclosing information on sustainability issues across different reporting platforms. Public sector banks in India are lacking on reporting of its sustainability practices. A biennial survey conducted in FY 2016-17 by KPMG, showed that approximately 73% of the top financial companies report on its corporate responsibility practices globally.
Recently, India’s largest bank system, State Bank of India (SBI) has released its 2018-19 Sustainability Report, Spearheading Digital India-Banking Solutions for a Sustainable Tomorrow, which is fourth consecutive report for FY 2018-19 – presenting data for the period of 1 April 2018 to 31 March, 2019.
SBI which has total customer base of more than 43 crore is currently the only public sector bank to publish a sustainability report in India.
The report includes the SBI’s performance to-date related to three sustainability pillars – social, environmental, and economic. The report highlights the Bank’s commitment to building more sustainable societies through an integrated approach to social and environmental responsibility.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Core Option. Additionally, it fulfills the requirements of the 10 principles outlined by the Standards. The content of the report discusses information relevant to the Bank’s material issues, identified through an inclusive stakeholder engagement process.
‘Sustainability’ was added as a ‘value’ in FY 2017-18 and has become a key focus area driving business decisions and operational change.
- It is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers and employees.
- As on 31 March 2019, the Bank operated 22,010 branches, managed 58,415 ATMs and employed more than 2.5 lakh people.
- It ended the financial year with a total customer base of more than 43 crore. With over 141 lakh registered users, the mobile banking channel had processed transactions amounting to Rs 2,74,029 crore.
Corporate Centre Sustainability Committee
The Corporate Centre Sustainability Committee (CCSC) is headed by the Bank’s Deputy Managing Director (HR) & Corporate Development Officer, who is also SBI’s Chief Sustainability Officer and reports directly to the Chairman. The committee is responsible for driving sustainability initiatives, identifying new areas of intervention, approving goals and targets and reporting on sustainability and other non-financial parameters.
Corporate Social Responsibility Committee
The Corporate Social Responsibility Committee was constituted in 2014 to review the activities undertaken by the Bank under the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy. The Committee was last reconstituted in March 2018 and currently has seven members. The Chairman of the Committee is the Senior Managing Director.
