To achieve their vision of becoming Australia and New Zealand’s most respected bank, National Australia Bank’s (NAB) approach to Corporate Responsibility is to make a positive and sustainable impact on the lives of what they refer to as their people, customers, communities and the environment in which they operate by tackling some of the biggest societal issues faced by the customers. (NAB, 2017). The corporate responsibility strategy is aligned to their core business whilst focusing on the issues that matter for the greatest impact. Keeping customers as a focal point, NAB uses its strengths as a bank, a significant employer as well as an active member of the community to make a difference, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and resilience, social cohesion and environmental wellbeing (NAB, 2017). They have prioritised these areas by assisting people who are normally excluded from mainstream banking to have access to fair …show more content…
This has also led to low public confidence in banks according to a national survey by Catalyst Australia, where 76% of respondents believe that banks put profits before their social and environmental responsibilities (Boersma, 2015). A 2015 news article quotes former BNP chief executive for Australia and New Zealand, Didier Mahout as saying that Australian banks are facing increasing shareholder concern over their potential carbon exposure and that there was room for improvement in how seriously corporate social responsibility issues were taken in Australia. This has led to some international financial institutions to become more concerned with the reputational and business risks of some large resources projects such as those in the coal industry (Yeates,