Westpac Banking Group: Corporate Governance, CSR, and Sustainability

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability within the Westpac Banking Group (WBC). It begins with an introduction to CSR and Sustainability, emphasizing their importance in today's globalized market. The report then delves into potential losses WBC might face in maintaining CSR and sustainability, including uncalculated donations, denial of valid claims, and providing excessive employee benefits. A key section focuses on risk mapping, identifying strategic, operational, financial, and political risks faced by WBC, along with strategies to mitigate these risks, such as risk avoidance, reduction, transfer, and acceptance. The role of the Board of Directors in overseeing CSR and sustainability is also examined, highlighting their focus on ethical practices, supporting community causes, and promoting brand awareness. Finally, the report offers recommendations to enhance WBC's CSR and sustainability efforts, concluding with a summary of the key findings and insights.

Corporate Governance
Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in Respect of
Corporate Governance of Westpac Banking Group
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Corporate Governance
Executive Summary
The project opens with a clear idea about Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
in respect to the study of Corporate Governance. Then, it gives a detailed process of studying
risk management through the identification of Risks faced by Westpac Banking Group
(WBC) by means of proper risk mapping. It also gives recommendations to improve
strategies to develop CSR and Sustainability and how they can contribute to the overall
improvement of WBC.
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Content
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Losses faced by Westpac Banking Group (WBC) to maintain Corporate Social Responsibility
and Sustainability.......................................................................................................................4
Risk Mapping of Westpac Banking Group (WBC) and Strategies to solve the Risks...............7
Position of Board Of Directors of Westpac Banking Group(WBC) In respect of Corporate
Social Responsibility and Sustainability..................................................................................11
Recommendations to improve Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability of Westpac
Banking Group (WBC)............................................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is referred to as the ethical, moral and responsible
treatment by an organization to its stakeholders. It is hereby a matter of fact that there is an
existence of the stakeholders outside as well as inside the company.CSR is basically the
responsibility of a corporate body to the community as a whole as well as a society. CSR
includes economic as well as environmental responsibilities. Sustainability is the continuous
maintenance at a certain level. There is a close interlink between CSR and Sustainability as
their main aim is to regulate and bring about certain sustainable developments in society as a
whole. In today's globalized market, it is the expectation of the stakeholders that every
corporate body shall act as a good corporate citizen.
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Losses faced by Westpac Banking Group (WBC) to maintain Corporate
Social Responsibility and Sustainability
The business organization which is the subject of study for this project is Westpac Banking
Group (WBC). It is a Banking and Insurance company that operates its business all over the
world having its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. For WBC, the application of CSR
strategies and sustainability can lead to the profit of the company. But as CSR is a versatile
idea, it can also lead the company exposed to losses (Lim, J.S. et. al, 2017).CSR is the
contribution of a corporate organization towards the development of society. There are
several ways in which corporate social responsibility and sustainability can subject WBC to
financial or other kinds of losses. These ways are:
● Uncalculated Donations: In order to "do good" for the society as per the basic idea of
CSR and Sustainability, WBC has a high chance of giving away uncalculated
Donations to different segments of the society in order to get recognized as a
responsible Corporate Citizen in the global market. These donations if not done with
detailed and foreseen calculations, can cause financial damages to the corporation.
Moreover, the mode of donations if made is in the form of taxes paid by the
employees of the organization, such an idea can backfire as the employees may
disagree to pay apart from their salary as donations.
● Denial of giving away valid claims: Paying insurers their valid claims is a part of the
CSR and Sustainability of the company. Westpac Banking Group is an insurance
company and if it denies paying valid claims to the insurers, it not only denies the
basic elements of CSR but also harms the reputation of the brand in the market. WBC
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by doing so will eventually end up losing its clients with time, which will reduce its
business.
● Philanthropy: It is argued by many eminent scholars whether corporate social
responsibility is to be exercised before gaining profit or after gaining profit. Points of
arguments are stated for and against this topic. But for Westpac, philanthropy can lead
to financial damages to the company. In order to keep the business ethics high, WBC
can overlook the probable effects of increasing offers and schemes on its annual
overall financial outcome, resulting in losses incurred by the company. The
stakeholders always expect the company to be a responsible corporate citizen
(Hopkins, M. 2017).
● Providing more than adequate facilities to the employees: Another way through which
CSR and sustainability can incur losses to WBC is by providing its employees with
more and more facilities and gifts without any overtime or extraordinary
performances. This results in an increment into a company’s payroll allowances, thus
reducing the profit margin and incurring a loss.
❖ Supporting community causes
One of the most widely known CSR issues for Westpac Banking Group is to support
community causes. An ideal corporate citizen is characterized by serving the community in
financial development. WBC being an insurance company, can have a financial hike or hike
in brand popularity if it considers investing for the development of the community as a
whole. For this purpose, WBC can adopt new and efficient policies for the sake of the
economically backward class of the society, thus improving the brand value for its attempt to
serve the humanitarian causes (Androif, J. 2017).
❖ Sustainability Issue of WBC
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A major Sustainability issue for WBC is a sustainable environment. A good corporate citizen
does not overlook the contribution of its business to the environment (Bouma, J.J. et al,
2017). For this sustainability issue, Westpac can reduce the energy consumption required for
its operations and concentrate on the ways it can benefit the environment. Reducing the use
of paper, thermal sources of power and carbon can contribute to environmental sustainability
and it can help the company to achieve CSR.
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Risk Mapping of Westpac Banking Group (WBC) and Strategies to solve
the Risks
The singular and most important tool for a safe and sound system of Risk Management is
Risk Mapping. The study of Risk Management considers the identification of Risks and their
reduction in respect of the type of business (Tyagi, N.K. et al, 2019). Risk can be classified
into four major classifications -
1. Strategic Risks: This type of risk deals with the strategic department of an
organization. For an insurance company like WBC, the main element for the success
of the company is a well-planned business strategy. Strategic Risks include the
changes in the preferences of insurance plans by the insurers, other competitor
insurance companies offering better policies (Bromiley, P. et al, 2016) with the due
process of globalization, new companies in the insurance market are being introduced,
thus bringing up a risk factor for WBC to carry on its business.
2. Operational Risks: The second type of risk faced by Westpac Banking Group are the
Risks faced for operating its business (Hou, X. et. al, 2017). The main operational risk
faced by WBC is environmental changes such as natural disasters, adverse changes in
the climate, which have a high possibility of influencing the mortality rates and
accidental deaths. These factors can have a great impact on the operating system and
policies of insurance of Westpac as high mortality rates and health issues generally
increases the number of valid claims to be given out by WBC (Eckert, C. et. al. 2018).
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Figure - 1 Source - http://lorenzopreve.com/risk-mapping/
3. Financial Risks: For WBC, financial Risks include the uncertain rates of interest,
fluctuations in the determination of the ratio of relatively less liability. There can also
be sudden inflation in operational cost, fraudulent claims, misinterpreted insurance
plans and other features which fall under the financial department of WBC. Another
element of financial risk is the uncertainty of liquidation (Liu, H. 2019), in order to
avoid thorough study and research that must be done at regular intervals to ensure the
reduction of Financial Risk.
4. Political Risk: The political Risks constitute social and political problems such as the
sudden emergence of war, civil disputes across the globe and sudden changes in the
legal rules and regulations (Haendel, D. 2019). Sudden changes in insurance laws can
trouble the existing insurance policies, moreover, the emergence of political
instability across the globe can adversely affect the operational systems of WBC.
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Figure - 2 Source - http://lorenzopreve.com/risk-mapping/
From the above diagram, it can be concluded that the Risk Factors as mentioned above
should be dealt with the two main elements -
● Probability of a Risk
● Impact of such risk
Risks should be classified in a graphical manner as they use the intensity of the probability of
occurrence and their impact on different departments of WBC. A risk may have a high,
medium or low probability of occurrence and thus, should be identified based on the level of
impact they have on the company.
❖ Strategies that can identify risks:
Every company has its own risk management plan which makes it easier for them to run.
(Chang, C. H. et al, 2019) The previous questions speak of certain risks, but they are more
involved. Every risk management starts with a plan, depending upon a company’s needs. This
comes with the execution of four strategies to address the risk required :( De Villiers, C. et al,
2017)
1. Avoid it: Avoiding risk is the most effective way of dealing. It relates to either
elimination of that risk or finding another different approach towards it. The risk that causes
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potential problems can be avoided or eliminated. This will not bring about loss in the
company. However not taking any risks might also be a loss for the company as many profits
stand at the end of the paths where risks are taken.
2. Reduce Risk: The next strategy is to reduce the risk if a company does not want to
exclude a certain activity. Minimizing the outcome or influence which a certain activity can
have is another strategy. Like in CSR, reducing the supplier investor pressure by introducing
ethical conditions as well as looking for environment-friendly products for sustainability and
reducing the risk out of that. The impact of risk can be reduced by introducing short term
credit facilities. However, if the measures or precautions taken here to reduce the risk impact
is ineffective, the company will suffer a loss. (Giannakis, M. et al, 2016)
3. Transfer the Risk: The most common is the Insurance, as stated in the company of
Westpac Banking Group which deals with insurance too. It is a transfer of risk strategy, with
just a payment in return. This strategy can be placed in the demand for disclosure too where
there are investors who want such disclosures as well.
4. Accept the Risk: As stated earlier, the risk is a pathway to success too. Avoiding a
risk might not work every time. For minor risks, it is better to accept them instead of
mitigating their impact. It might lead to missing out potential benefits but its low cost and
plenty of resources will be available for bigger risks. However, in this strategy, it must be
taken into account that there are no controls and it completely depends on the impact of the
risk. Minor impacts will be appreciable but care has to be taken about the assumptions made
or else the risk might bring unexpected results which the company might suffer. (Gaudenzi,B.
et al, 2018)
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Position of Board Of Directors of Westpac Banking Group(WBC) In
respect of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
The board of Directors of the Westpac Banking Group is overseeing the Company’s CSR and
sustainability. (Kaymak, T. et al, 2017) They follow certain measures to maintain it like:
1. Being good: Corporate Social Responsibility is about maintaining balance. These
ethics make a good impact on all whether it is a shareholder or customer or the impact that
the Banking Group will have on the environment and communities. Corporate care is what
many people seek and look forward to working with.
2. Supporting community causes: Westpac Banking Group focuses on the entertainment
and wellbeing of their staff as well as clients by means of sports events and other such things.
The Board of Directors also makes sure that there is brand awareness in return of investment
regarding sponsorship and other support with a good balance. It also allocated annual budgets
on the basis of education, poverty, culture, and environment and so on. (Airike, P. et al, 2016)
3. Promoting Greener Business: Westpac ensures the comfort of its employees but also
on a greener basis, like, adjusting thermostats, recycling papers, avoiding plastics, usage, and
promotion of biodegradable products, encouraging paperless offices as much as possible and
other such things for better sustainability.
4. Inclusion of Diversity: Equality and Diversity always makes a company stronger than
before as it contains a variety of ideas, unique minds and plenty of knowledge. Westpac
makes sure that the workforce of the company includes diversity within so as to interact and
know more about consumers of diverse natures and the wellbeing of staff too.
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5. Donations: Westpac ensures that a part of the income is dedicated to charities and is
shown to the customers too.
However, the Insurance and financial process include scandals too. Westpac Banking Group
might take steps for CSR but it might not be the best in certain ways. (Crane, A. et al, 2016)
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Recommendations to improve Corporate Social Responsibility and
Sustainability of Westpac Banking Group (WBC)
Managing CSR and sustainability issues, employees, consumers, stakeholders,
intermediaries, suppliers and all must be also considered. CSR management can increase
sustainability in the market as well as the community. (Pisani, N. et al, 2017) Westpac
Banking Group are putting efforts in CSR and sustainability but I would recommend:
1. Efficient Payment of Valid Claims: It involves the right technology as well as staff
training. Insurers must price the risks effectively and not based on vague assumptions.
For effective payment, down cost is preferred. However, it must not be mixed with
under-resourced and poor service insurance.
2. Climate change: A big part of insurance deals with climate change and environmental
impact like natural disasters. Insurance workers should get in touch with the United
Nations Environmental Finance Programme and support it. It will lead to strengthening
its CSR and sustainability management as well as stand equal to competitors.
3. Socially Responsible Investment: Insurers have the position to implement a positive
change in investment. Ignoring social and environmental influence might become risky
for Investors and Insurers. (Vashchenk, M. et al, 2017) To overcome this, a company
may go through these three strategies of
· Screening
· Shareholder activism
· Community Investing
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4. Minimization of Loss control: Insurers are in a business that involves risks. Only
Money cannot repair the damages caused to a company. Internal risk minimization can be
implemented by proper policies, procedures and guidelines. Insurance should look
forward to training their underwriters to examine the client’s decision making, ethics and
procedures of Risk Management. For the management of External risks, insurers should
promote discounted premiums and preventive measures.
These recommendations I think might help the Westpac Banking Group for better CSR
management of issues. There is an involvement of Human Rights too which cannot be
ignored by the company even if it does not affect the insurance policies. (Puncheva, P. et al,
2018) The implementation of these steps will reduce the CSR and sustainability risks faced
by a company.
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Conclusion
The report deals with the Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability, its issues and
management with regard to the Westpac Banking Group. Management of these issues can
save a company from losses that can be procured to it. However, there are strategies to
manage the risk which when adopted by the company might reduce the losses. Every
company might have certain measures to implement it but the precautionary steps must be
taken and the risk must be identified as well as adequate expenditure of resources should be
taken. Both financial and insurance companies are subjected to environmental factors
affecting them. The United Nations Environment Programme provides relief as well as
measures to avoid it which every company should look up to.
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