ACCT209 Corporate Accounting: Sustainability Report Analysis of Banks

This report provides a comparative analysis of the sustainability reports of ANZ Bank and Commonwealth Bank, both listed on the ASX200 and operating in the banking sector. It examines the quality and quantity of information provided in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, considering the role of corporate reporting on sustainability through frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The report also discusses the national and sectoral context in which these firms operate, highlighting institutional and structural pressures influencing their CSR initiatives. By reviewing their sustainability practices, community development efforts, and future targets, the study assesses the effectiveness of their CSR strategies and their commitment to stakeholder engagement and responsible business practices. The analysis reveals their dedication to improving community well-being through education, sustainable practices, and fair business conduct.

Running head: CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Corporate Accounting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the study is to illustrate the value of corporate sustainability report to
organisatons with the concept of corporate sustainability. The report required the comparison of
sustainability reports of two real companies from the same industry. The companies chosen for
this topic include Commonwealth bank and ANZ bank , which belong to the banking sector.
Both of these companies are listed in the ASX 200.through this comparison the report required to
address various questions regarding validity of the information provided, its impact on
stakeholders, its future targets among others.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussions......................................................................................................................................3
ANZ Bank....................................................................................................................................3
Commonwealth Bank..................................................................................................................6
Comparison of the sustainable reports.........................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
A corporate sustainable report refers to a report that includes all environmental, social
and economic impacts that is caused by an organization in its everyday activities. It is a report
that mainly focuses on the environmental, social and governance issues. These issues influence
the stakeholders including investors, customers and host governments. The idea of CSR has
made a widespread impact throughout the business world. It is a business approach that
contributes in sustainable development that enables in economic, social and environmental
benefits that accrues to all stakeholders(Schwartz 2017, p.1). It is a broad concept that addresses
may issues like human rights, corporate governance , health and safety among others. The
purpose of CSR is to develop sustainability. With widespread changes in global business
practices and changing trades in social responsibility it has become widely prevalent in
society(Carroll 2015, p.90). It has become an integral part of tradition and a determinant of
culture . Here the CSR practices of commonwealth bank and ANZ banking group have been
compared with a view to assess their effectiveness.
Discussions
ANZ Bank
The ANZ bank is one of the major banks in Australia . It offers a variety of banking and
financial products and services to over eight million customers operating in more than 30
markets. The corporate sustainability report of the ANZ bank highlights the many ways in which
the bank has contributed to the communities in which they have operated. This report illustrates
how they do business which includes their purpose, values and corporate sustainability
framework. This company has been using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for

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the process of sustainable reporting for more than 10 years. The framework for corporate
sustainability framework has three main focus impacts :
Fair and Responsible Banking- the company wants to earn the trust of the public. It knows that
the besr way to do that is fulfilling the various prospects of the stakeholders. This can happen by
preserving a high standard of conduct and contemplating the environmental and social impacts
of the decisions of the business.
Social and Environmental Participation-This focuses on fostering sustainable customer
participation and connecting with the communities., thereby fostering a support for varied and
comprehensive society in which everybody will feel welcome(Sabharwal 2014,p.200)
Sustainable growth-Generating opportunities for all customers and enablling the sustaining
growth for all types of businesses.
On 1st January, 2016 the sustainable goals of the United Nations(SDGs) first came into
place .These goals and targets were aimed to solve the world’s most persistent challenges for
sustainable development which includes eradicating global poverty, shielding the community
and making sure that our human rights are protected. The company became patners with a
Singapore based investment exchange ( IIX) . It also advanced a new Women’s Livelihood Bond
(WLB), the first sustainability bond of the world that was listed on a stock exchange. The bond
incomes enable the bank to provide loans to microfinance institutions across all over South east
Asia ( Anz.com 2018). These activities in turn help women in some of the world’s most
susceptible regions. The WLB enables these borrowers to expand their business with the help of
these loans and contributes more than 350,000 women in countries like Cambodia , Vietnam and
Philippines. This is basically done through better access to capital, credit and affordable goods

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and services. The company has lately started initiating a work programme with a quantity of
large Australian businesses. This is done in a bid to promote more SDG’s among other listed
companies. They are also combining forces with the various stakeholders including
government and NGOs( Anz.com 2018,).
The company has engaged with both shareholders and stakeholder like industry
associations, non-government agencies, employees in order to address their requirements. It is
very important to have an effective arrangement with all their stakeholders if they are to
comprehend and reply to their prospects. It makes a significant investment in an all inclusiveand
diversified workforce . This will help the community by generating opportunities for
employment for under represented groups ( Anz.com 2018,). It is committed to achieving a
diversified workforce that reflects the inclusion of all communities in which the business
operate. The company targets a representation increase of women managers by 3 percent from
2015 to 2018.
Some of their 2018 sustainable targets include:
 Generate the best experience as possible for customers. This can be done by improving
the Net Promoter Score that is relevant to retail, corporate and institutional customers
 Increase the responsibility of senior management by modelling the bank’s values by 25
to 74% in 2018.
 Extend the education for cyber security and its awareness in 2018. This can be done by
installing key cyber security information to key businesses( Anz.com 2018,)
 Improving the employee engagement by 6% to 80 % by 2020
 Reducing the direct impact of the business activities. This can be done by reducing
paper consumption in Australia and New Zealand by 40 percent by 2020 . Another

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prospect that the company has is that it can increase the renewable energy use in
Australian actions by 13 percent by 2020.
Figure 1-A snapshot of the sustainability of ANZ bank
Source-( Anz.com 2018,).
Commonwealth Bank
The commonwealth bank provides financial services for people, businesses and
communities all over Australia. It is presently one of the leading financial institutions . This

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bank provides institutional banking and wealth management services to 11 countries around the
world.
They are focused on the following material issues that address the following
 Customer experience- Customers are the primary focus of their organization
 Diversity and inclusion- It is an essential part of their culture and values. This enables the
company to chalk out a framework on how they do their business(Sabharwal 2014,p.
210).
 Financial stability and performance- It is vital to the long term sustainability of the bank.
 Workforce well being, conduct and culture- Maintaining high professional standards is
paramount in order to earn the trust of the stakeholders.( Markley,Lyons and Macke 2015
,p. 574)
 Responsible lending, investing and procuring- the company needs to make sure that their
policies and processes allow the company to lend and invest in a responsible and fair
manner.
The company also understands the necessity of maintaining an open dialogue and transparent
stakeholder engagement policies in order to maintain effective relationship with that of the
stakeholders (Grawitch, Ballard and Erb 2017,p.249). The sustainability report of the
organization provides a complete view of financial and non financial performance(Epstein
2018, p.101). It is a participant to the United Nations global Comapct. It is dedicated to
interactive progress on combining these principles . These principles cover human rights, labour
and anti corruption (Commbank.com.au 2018, p.1). In the future, the company plans to review

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their strategy and programs of work in light of the SDG’s. According To the CSR policy of the
Commonwealth Bank, the bank has its sights on the following SDG’s
Teaching children the value of money- this is aimed at promoting the financial well being and
money management skills of the Australian children (Howell 2016, p.77 ). It launched a free
financial education program called Start Smart which provides appealing workshops. These
workshops are run by expert facilitators that promote education. It is the largest literacy program
in the world . In this programme more than 2.5 million Australian children since the program
was inaugurated in 2007. In the last one year, the program has enrolled more than 500,000
students (Commbank.com.au 2018).
Help prepare the workforce of the future- they are committed to improving the education system
of the country by investing in more than $ 16 million in education alone in 2017. They have a
fund set up as The learning impact fund . It is a fund that provides grants to developers of
education in partnership with Australian research institutions .The fund has invested in $163
million in trials that are running in 215 schools with more than 11000 students. It also dispersed
$571000 across three research trials (Commbank.com.au 2018, p.40).
Enabling diversity and inclusion- The company needs to create an inclusive workplace that
views the communities in where they operate. In 2015, the diversity and inclusion control
recognized a three year diversity and inclusion strategy . The primary goal of the company is
building an inclusive culture (Rauschmayer, Bauler and Schäpke 2015,p. 220).The company has
also set a new gender diversity leadership target . The target is 40 percent women in executive
manager and above positions by 2020 . last year, he company had achieved their gender
diversity target.

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Contributing to communities-, The company has contributed to their communities through
community investment, disaster relief and as a taxpayer. The people employed in the bank are
vigorously involved in the community and donate by volunteering and fundraising. The company
has encouraged a culture of volunteering in order to provide much needed benefits to the
company. The volunteering program enables the community to have access to volunteers with
skills and know-how that is vital to their sustainability. The staff fund raising has made an
investment of more than $ 1 million. This investment has been made to back cancer research in
the last financial year through the annual CAN4CANCER ride and walk in partnership with tour
de cure (Commbank.com.au 2018,).
Figure 2-A snapshot of the sustainability practices of Commonwealth bank
Source-(Commbank.com.au 2018, ).

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Comparison of the sustainable reports
By reviewing the sustainable reports of both the companies, it is pretty evident that these
companies have made significant commitments in order to improve the wellbeing of the
communities they operate in. They have undertaken a variety of measures that promote
education, community development and a sustainable approach towards fair and responsible
business practices(Farley et al., 2015,p. 74).
These reports are not merely an exercise in public relation exercises. These reports are
prepared with a view to encourage stakeholder engagement and promoting fair and responsible
fair business practices(Waas, et al., 2014, p.5530) While the sustainability report of the ANZ
bank has its performance standards set against the UNGC standards as the benchmark , the
company Commonwealth bank has no such benchmark.
In reference to the plans set in the future, both companies have a great track record in
fulfilling their targets. The sustainability reports of both companies lay out targets that the
companies will have to try and achieve. Both companies will strive to try and achieve their
targets fully(Ioannou and Serafeim 2017, p.243).
These reports are prepared with a view to engage with stakeholder and not only
shareholders . it is aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of its socially responsible
activities(Zhong, Wang and Yang 2017, p.423).Both the companies are trusted organization and
a very high degree of trust and reputation among the general public.These two companies can be
trusted fully to serve the needs of the public .

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Conclusion
The study evaluated the sustainability reports of the ANZ bank and commonwealth bank.
It analyzed the various sustainability practices of both the companies . It made a list of their
targets and the various activities the companies took in reference to community development,
promote gender diversity in the workforce etc. It also necessitated some programs that both the
companies took in order to promote sustainability. A comparison has been done to assess the
validity of the information provided in the corporate sustainable report .It also illustrated the
concept of corporate social responsibility and its value to organisations.

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Reference:
Anz.com (2018). Sustainability reporting | ANZ. [online] Anz.com. Available at:
http://www.anz.com/about-us/corporate-sustainability/reporting-performance/sustainability-
reporting [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].
Carroll, A.B., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Organizational dynamics, 44(2), pp.87-96.
Commbank.com.au (2018). [online] Commbank.com.au. Available at:
https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/commbank/about-us/shareholders/pdfs/corporate-
responsibility/2017/2017-corporate-responsibility-report.pdf [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].
Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Farley, J., Costanza, R., Flomenhoft, G. and Kirk, D., 2015. The Vermont Common Assets Trust:
An institution for sustainable, just and efficient resource allocation. Ecological Economics, 109,
pp.71-79.
Grawitch, M.J., Ballard, D.W. and Erb, K.R., 2017. Work and wellbeing. The Routledge
Companion to Wellbeing at Work, p.249.
Howell, N.J., 2016. Small amount credit contracts and payday loans: The complementarity of
price regulation and responsible lending regulation. Alternative Law Journal, 41(3), pp.174-178.
Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2017. The consequences of mandatory corporate sustainability
reporting.

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Markley, D.M., Lyons, T.S. and Macke, D.W., 2015. Creating entrepreneurial communities:
building community capacity for ecosystem development. Community development, 46(5),
pp.580-598.
Rauschmayer, F., Bauler, T. and Schäpke, N., 2015. Towards a thick understanding of
sustainability transitions—Linking transition management, capabilities and social
practices. Ecological economics, 109, pp.211-221.
Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further
performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.
Schwartz, M.S., 2017. Corporate social responsibility. Routledge.
Waas, T., Hugé, J., Block, T., Wright, T., Benitez-Capistros, F. and Verbruggen, A., 2014.
Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable
development. Sustainability, 6(9), pp.5512-5534.
Zhong, N., Wang, S. and Yang, R., 2017. Does corporate governance enhance common interests
of shareholders and primary stakeholders?. Journal of business ethics, 141(2), pp.411-431.