Corporate Social Responsibility

This document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its impact on ANZ and HSBC banks. It provides an overview of the CSR reports of both banks, their values, and their alignment with the values of the companies. The document also explores the sustainable development goals of the banks and their efforts towards achieving them.

Running head: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Response to question 1:..............................................................................................................3
Response to question 2...............................................................................................................4
Response to question 3...............................................................................................................5
Response to question 4...............................................................................................................6
Response to question 5...............................................................................................................8
Response to question 6...............................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Response to question 1:
The two companies selected for the purpose of the study is ANZ and HSBC banks.
The Australian and New Zealand bank also known as the ANZ bank is an Australian bank
with the third highest market capitalization after common wealth bank and Westpac bank in
Australia (Chen et al., 2016). It carries out various financial and banking services across
different countries but its major operations in Australia include retail and commercial
banking facilities. It has achieved the tittle of being the second most sustainable bank in
Australia according to the sustainability index of Dow Jones. The company basically operates
in Australia and New Zealand. There activities include range from insurance and finance,
corporate banking, consumer banking, private banking, investment banking to providing
credit cards, mortgages and other activities (Akhisar, Tunay & Tunay, 2015). However, the
company was faced with certain controversies related to social issues such as allegations was
put against the company that they had funded a Cambodian company that was carrying out
child labor activities. The second company is HSBC bank of UK which is also a
multinational banking company of Britain. The company is the largest in Europe and the
seventh largest in the world. It operates in Hong Kong and UK because these are the home
markets of the company. It operates four banking businesses- investment banking,
commercial banking, wealth management and retail banking and private global banking. The
company has dual stock exchange listings from Hong Kong and New York. However, the
company has been in the news recently due to their unsustainable ways of doing business.
The company was reported to be earning profits through customers who evaded taxes and
other similar clients (Holland, Lindop & Zainudin, 2016). There have been cases related to
money laundering by the company and was sued by many Mexican families who were

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affected by the money laundering (Madinger, 2016). The company provides services such as
investment banking, retail banking, mortgage loans, wealth management and other activities.
Response to question 2
ANZ’s CSR Report is prepared according to the Global reporting initiative in order to
carefully cover sustainable issues of economic, social and environmental factors (Adams,
2017). The report on the environmental performance aims at highlighting the activities
undertaken by the company for carbon offset activities and for reducing the greenhouse gas
emissions. The company is getting competitive advantage through creating climatic
awareness. Employees of the company help in cleaning the environment. The company is
taking care of its societal responsibilities by undertaking various activities for the financial
wellbeing of the older Australians. The economic activities undertaken by the company is
that they are focusing on sustainable financing activities because it provides economic
efficiency to the company (Bouma, Jeucken & Klinkers, 2017). The sustainability report of
HSBC bank UK provides for covering the issues of society, environment and economic. The
company carries out its responsibility towards the society by working on the feedbacks of the
customers and making changes accordingly. For instance the company has improved the
accessibility of the banks, they have made brought transparency to the fees and charges of the
bank and many more changes. The company’s duty towards the environment can be seen to
be fulfilled because the company has reduced their CO2 emission since 2011. They have an
aim of reducing wastage of resources by 75% by 2020 and other similar goals. The company
fulfills their economic responsibility by focusing on sustainable investment and financing
activities. The CSR report of the HSBC bank is more graphically presented. Is has used more
graphs, pictures and other visual symbols that makes it attractive. Moreover the information
presented by the CSR report is also easy to understand because most of the important

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information is graphically shown and it is also highlighted. However, the weakness of in the
reporting style is that the information is too concise so if the stakeholders want detailed
information they will find it difficult to get the same from the report. The CSR report of ANZ
bank is more descriptive and all the information about the CSR activities undertaken by the
company has clearly been mentioned. It is beneficial for any outsider or the stakeholders
because they can get all necessary information about the company from the report. The major
weakness is that the report lack statistical data and presentation.
Response to question 3
In order to achieve the Sustainable development goals of providing social wellbeing
to the Australians and reducing environmental impact of the company, the company has
entered into a sustainable bond (Ehlers & Packer, 2017). This is in alignment with the green
bond principles of 2017 and also the social bond principles. Under this bond the company has
responsibility for social and sustainable issues, the bond will undertake activities of
investment that has reduced environmental impact and will not carry out investment activities
for projects that show any form of environmental risks. The company is aiming to reduce its
environmental impact by funding towards low-carbon projects impact by 2020. The company
is a part of the climate disclosures standard board and therefore ensures transparency in its
reporting (Ben‐Amar & McIlkenny, 2015). The company’s risk policy on environment will
cover issues on extraction activities, forestry and others. The company ensures its
responsibility towards the customers by encouraging them to adopt management practices
that are focused on improving the organizations performance towards the society and the
environment. Sustainable financing is the most important economic issue of the company
because it provides economic efficiency, prosperity to the company as well as economy and
also economic competitiveness. The sustainable development goals for HSBC should be that

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of carrying out sustainable financing (Steckel et al., 2017). By doing the same, the company
can help to improve well-being and the health of individuals, improve the quality of
education being provided, will help in various infrastructure and innovation activities. The
issue of reducing carbon emission is a major problem that is being faced by UK (Jain,
Keneley and Thomson, 2015). In order to overcome this various climatic change agreements
needs to be entered by the company to reduce the emissions. For this the exposure to thermal
carbon needs to be reduced and other carbon sectors transition path needs to be undertaken.
For becoming sustainable, the company needs to reduce its emissions and carbon usage.
Considering these factors, HSBC bank decided to enter into sustainable financing bond that
will not only help to reduce the carbon emissions but also will help in various other
sustainable financing and investment activities (Hossain & Khan, 2016). The company has
laid down policies for reducing the climatic risk through reducing the exposure of the
company to the thermal carbons and the company has also reviewed their policy on energy
consumption to reduce and control the same. The company is providing training to the
employees such that on issues of sustainable financing. The company’s task force on climate
related financial disclosures are giving recommendations for improving proper disclosure of
facts. For ensuring sustainable financing, the company has created a separate website and the
company has also published reports on various initiatives undertaken by the company.
Therefore, the SDG of HSBC has been addressed properly through the new bond entered by
the company.
Response to question 4
According to Dunphy, Griffiths & Benn there are five major stages of an organization
and the last stage is when an organization completely becomes a sustainable organization.
They developed this model called the corporate sustainability model to understand the

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corporate sustainability and for helping organizations identify in which stage of sustainability
model are they in (Carayannis, Sindakis & Walter, 2015). These stages are- Rejection, Non-
response, Compliance, efficiency, Proactivity and Sustaining organization. ANZ bank is in
the sustaining stage of corporate sustainability because this stage aims at high transparency
levels, accountability and auditability. The organizations in this stage redefine relationships
of business and have a culture of transformation and change. The company discloses its tax
liabilities in its CSR report. The company ensures its auditability through various reports and
disclosures in form of statements. The company is known for their transformation culture.
ANZ has decided to survive in this competitive market through a program of major
transformation that will be achieved through digital banking (Sam & Tiong, 2015). The
company has already started working on the same and has created Scaled Agile framework
and the model of NWOW. The company is trying to achieve its aim of becoming a global
digital bank leader; it is transforming the culture of its people, process and others. This
culture transformation will help to increase engagement of employees, increase productivity
and increased customer services. The company is known for maintaining good relationships
with businesses and the company has even been awarded the first place for maintaining
quality relationships with other businesses (Davidson et al., 2017). The company also
maintains good relationship with its stakeholders by complying with the laws for meeting the
needs of the stakeholders. HSBC is in the efficiency levels. The efficiency levels focuses on
improved reporting techniques, avoid reputational risks, improve the engagement and
efficiency of its services and systematic HRM practices are followed. HSBC bank has been
subjected to many allegations related to money laundering that has caused reputational loss to
the company in order to avoid the same the company is using sustainability practices. The
company follows the policy of working with diverse people and has a zero tolerance policy
against any form of work place harassment. In this way the company engages its employees

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in the company. The company uses systematic and strategic HRM practices for selecting and
recruiting its workforce, proper training and taking regular feedbacks from the workforce.
Various statements and reports are prepared by the company such as CSR reports, annual
reports that focus on the organizations activities.
Response to question 5
ANZ banks value lies in providing transparency in its activities, trust, accountability,
integrity, respect, collaboration and excellence (ANZ, 2019). ANZ’s CSR reports is in
accordance with the values of the company because the company show their commitment
towards the customers by improving their wellbeing. The company aims at improving the
wellbeing of its old Australian customers by helping them get easy loans for owning house,
for making them financially independent by giving them proper financial resources and
providing the opportunities for loans of proper pension schemes. The company believes in
collaborative activities and so it provides regular training to its staff for dealing with
environmental and social risks and they are made a part of the program on sustainability
development. The company provides transparency of its activities through its disclosure
reports mentioned in the CSR reports. It ensures transparency in its funding costs. The
company’s mortgage rates have been increased recently in line with other competitors.
However, it became important to justify the reason for the same to maintain transparency and
the company disclosed in its reports the reasons for the same. The current market conditions
is that funding which are more expensive are replacing the less expensive funds and as a
result the wholesales funding cost increased. The main values of the HSBC company is to do
what is right, delivery of commitments towards the society, taking responsibility and
accountability for their actions and empowering others. The company has shown commitment
towards the society by entering into partnership with the Alzheimer’s society (HSBC, 2019).

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The company provides empowerment to all the people from UK to start their own company
through the company program of HSBC. The company is in partnership with young
enterprise and therefore it helps to empower all young entrepreneurs and empowers them by
properly educating them. The company provides for financial wellbeing of the society by
providing financial resources to the human trafficking victims. Therefore the company CSR
reports are in alignment with the values of the company.
Response to question 6
During the group discussion we have discussed about the values of both the company
and how far the company’s CSR reports have been able to be aligned with the values of the
companies. For instance the values of HSBC are to provide empowerment to all, commitment
towards the customers and other stakeholders. The report included activities that reflected the
values of the company. Similarly there are certain values of the ANZ Company such as
transparency and many others. However, there were certain points of agreement and
disagreement regarding the same.

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References
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disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Journal of Management
Accounting Research, 28(2), 53-76.
Akhisar, İ., Tunay, K. B., & Tunay, N. (2015). The effects of innovations on bank
performance: The case of electronic banking services. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 195, 369-375.
Madinger, J. (2016). Money laundering: A guide for criminal investigators. CRC Press.
Adams, C. (2017). Understanding integrated reporting: the concise guide to integrated
thinking and the future of corporate reporting. Routledge.
HSBC Personal Banking - HSBC Bank USA. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.us.hsbc.com/
ANZ Personal Banking | Accounts, credit cards, loans, insurance | ANZ. (2019). Retrieved
from https://www.anz.com.au/personal/
Hossain, S. K., & Khan, M. R. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Banking
Sector: An Empirical Study on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)
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Holland, K., Lindop, S., & Zainudin, F. (2016). Tax avoidance: A threat to corporate
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British Tax Review, (3).
Bouma, J. J., Jeucken, M., & Klinkers, L. (Eds.). (2017). Sustainable banking: The greening
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Ehlers, T., & Packer, F. (2017). Green bond finance and certification. BIS Quarterly Review
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