SCB Nepal Activities
Our Approach to Corporate Responsibility
Building a sustainable business is an integral part of our long-term strategy through enforcement in shareholder value whilst helping to address the significant social, economic and environmental issues the world is facing. By contributing to economic growth through our core business activities, we want to help protect the environment and to have a broader positive impact on the societies in which we live and work.
Increasing Access to Financial Services
Committed to bring majority of population of Nepal who are not in realm of financial services into the mainstream economy, the Bank is improving access to financial services and helping them make an economic contribution.
The Bank considers that with the set up of more micro finance institutions, the lack of the credit delivery system to the unreached population of the country will be mitigated. The Bank’s association with this business has been for long in that SCB Nepal is the promoter of few rural development banks and Rural Microfinance Development Centre (RMDC). To facilitate onward lending to the rural population for the development of microfinance in Nepal, the Bank has been lending to rural development banks and NGO’s.
Sustainable Lending
The Bank believes in minimizing the environmental impact of whatever it does thereby influencing its customers and suppliers to do likewise through its sustainable lending practices and procurement processes.
Standard Chartered Bank has a policy on Environmental risk in lending since 1995. After 2003, Social and Ethical factors were also included in the policy where each credit application, regardless of its size is required to be identified, evaluated and if necessary, mitigate the Social and Environmental risks.
Tackling Financial Crime
Criminal activity related to financial services not only affects the Bank’s business, but also hurts our customers and the communities where we do business. Money laundering is the process through which the proceeds of crime are disguised and concealed.
We strive to minimise the risk of our products and services being used by money launderers by using a multi-layered approach which starts with ‘Know Your customer’ (KYC)/ Customer Due Diligence (CDD) procedure from the time a customer opens an account. It also includes modern systems to screen suspicious transactions. During 2007, we launched revised, more risk-based, ‘Customer Due Diligence’ (CDD) standards across Consumer Banking.
The Bank believes that it has a responsibility to ensure that it not only provides its customers with transparent and helpful banking advice and products, but also educates them to better understand and manage their financial needs as they grow.
Responsible Selling and Marketing
Supporting our customers to make the right financial decisions sits at the core of our business. The Bank believes that it has a responsibility to ensure that it not only provides its customers with transparent and helpful banking advice and products, but also educates them to better understand and manage their financial needs as they grow.
In 2005, the policy on Responsible Selling and Marketing came into effect after a high-level working group reviewed the products and processes and approved policies on governance, assurance, data protection, complaints handling and mis-selling. We want to set the standard for openness and transparency with our customers.
Treatment of Employees
At Standard Chartered we recognize that it is increasingly important to have a diverse, talented and engaged workforce to drive the growth opportunities we have in our markets. With rapid growth across our franchise and changing customer and employee demographics, the Bank believes that our innovative and sustainable approach to managing our people is a source of competitive advantage.
In 2007, we made good progress in three key areas as part of our approach to managing our people: Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), Employee Engagement and Health and Safety.
Sharing of Best Practices
In line with sharing our best practices and being at the forefront of developing banking standards in the local market and our intent of partnering the regulators in the reform process/policy changes, the Bank conducted workshops/seminars on the following topics:
As per our commitment to contribute towards the microfinance sector worldwide, the Bank sponsored ‘Micro Finance Summit Nepal 2008, held during 14-16 February 2008, in Kathmandu. The Summit was organised by Centre for Micro-Finance, Nepal. The event aimed to unite microfinance stakeholders in Nepal at one forum. Sujit Mundul- Chief Executive Officer Nepal, Joseph Silvanus- Regional Head of Development Organization, South Asia and Anurag Mishra- Head of Origination and Client Coverage, Nepal, participated as the panelists at the three days session. Attended by 800 participants, the event was a great success.
The Bank sponsored the workshop - ‘Customer Service - Aiming for Excellence’ which was organized by Minds Nepal. The event was attended by Business leaders, CEOs of various banks and other local and multinational companies.
A presentation and interaction session on ‘Commodity Derivatives’ was organized by the Bank to create an awareness on the ‘Commodity Derivatives’. Girish Agnani - Associate Director –FX Derivatives Sales, Mumbai, made an impact on the audience with his presentation on the subject. The event, first of its kind in Nepal, was attended by ~45 corporate clients and Regulators.
Inline with being at the forefront of developing banking standards in the local market, a workshop on UCP 600 was organised for our customers by the staff of Bank.
Community Investment
For us, to be a successful business in the long term, healthy workforce communities and economies are essential. Our work with local communities also helps to engage our employees, provide opportunities for product innovation and differentiate our brand. We capitalize on our core skills and resources and have a strong belief that the long-term growth depends not just on financial performance but on working in partnership with stakeholders to build on our brand promise Here for good in the communities in which we operate.
SCB Nepal has constituted Standard Chartered Nepal Community Partnership Forum (SCNCPF) to undertake various community initiatives in Nepal, which has been registered with District Administration Office and has received affiliation from Social Welfare Council. This entitles exemption in income tax to individuals/corporates contributing to the entity.
‘Seeing is Believing’ and ‘Living with HIV’ are the two major initiatives of the Bank under its ‘Believing in Life’ campaign launched in 2003.
Seeing is Believing (SiB)
Having entered into its sixth year, Seeing is Believing (SiB) is an initiative led by our employees, which has helped to tackle preventable blindness and has proved highly successful in engaging staff and raising the profile of Standard Chartered globally.,
On the SCB global network front, during Phase I, SiB restored the eyesight of 56,000 people through cataract operations. Phase II helped restore the sight of a million people. The goal of Phase III of SiB was to raise $10 million by 2010 to make a difference to the lives of 10 million people across 20 countries. We have already met this fundraising target, three years ahead of schedule, and have a portfolio of 35 projects across 17 countries with projected beneficiaries numbering 10.3 million. Under the Bank’s Phase IV SiB program, SCB Group has set a new vision of investing USD 20 million in sustainable eye care services to 20 million people from 2008 to 2013 under the SiB.
In Nepal, Standard Chartered Nepal Community Partnership Forum conducted a fundraising event ‘Walkathon’ on November 15 which witnessed an active support and participation from all our stakeholders i.e, staff, vendors, customers and the community and made this event a great success.
Out of the 35 projects which have been indentified to be funded and rolled out in 17 countries, Standard Chartered Group identified Nepal for implementing ‘Vitamin A Capsule distribution’ project. The project covers feeding of Vitamin A Capsule to children between the age of 6 – 59 months within Kathmandu valley in partnership with Helen Keller International Nepal (HKI/N) and in collaboration with the Child Health Division under MOH and NTAG twice a year-April & November.
To mark the World Sight Day 2008, an agreement was signed between the Bank and Tilganga Eye Centre (TEC) 12th of November 2008 to conduct at least 15 screening camps between October 2008 and July 2009 for the underserved population of Kathmandu Valley and it’s neighbouring districts. The Bank will sponsor cataract surgeries at the Tilganga hospital in Kathmandu for 600 needy patients from the targeted 6,000 OPD cases to be screened in these camps.
In the past, the Bank has been instrumental in restoring sight to ~ 3,500 people till date. Eye camps were conducted in places viz. Chhaimale, Keelagal, Panauti, Badegaun, Thimi, Bajrabarahi, Gaushala, Balambu, Jhapa and Bhairahawa.
Taking our SiB initiative one step further, SCB Nepal made an arrangement to contribute 0.1% of its net retail transaction on domestic Visa/Mastercard to SiB account.
During the year 2007/08, the Bank supported Laboratory School Kirtipur, with five sets of computers installed with Job Access With Speech (JAWS) in an endeavor to help the visually impaired students to be familiar with computer skills.
An exhibition cum sale of goods/handicrafts produced by visually impaired people of Technical & Skill Development Centre for Blind & Disabled was held at three Branches in Kathmandu to garner support for their income generating activities.
Living with HIV
Living with HIV continues to be a key global programme for Standard Chartered. Our work on HIV education through our ‘Living with HIV’ programme are examples of how we are making a difference to the lives of many people whilst also helping to create healthy and stable workforces, another condition for sustainable economic growth.
In 2007, as part of our Clinton Global Initiative commitment to educate one million people by the end of 2010, the Group partnered with AIESEC, the world’s largest student organisation, to educate 300,000 students.
SCB Nepal has a pool of Living with HIV (LwHIV) Champions who are entrusted with the responsibility of extending the Bank’s HIV education programme with the community so as to raise awareness on the pandemic. The Champions have been conducting HIV/AIDS workshops targeting our customers, college students, Manpower recruiting agencies etc.
World AIDS Day 2008 was celebrated by organizing various activities within the Bank. SCB Nepal celebrates World Aids Day by rolling out number of activities such as encouraging staff to share their views on the subject through real life incidents, stories, by wearing red ribbons and also by encouraging staff to undergo Voluntary Counseling Testing (VCT) Know Your Status.
The Bank’s workplace programme and a brief workshop on HIV/AIDS were shared by the HIV Champions for new joiners, schools, NGO’s, Clubs etc during the week (Nov 30- Dec 5, 2008). Through these workshops, the Bank educated almost 500 people. Similarly, workshops on LwHIV are being conducted for new joiners of the Bank by LwHIV Champions at regular intervals.
Our Focus on Youth, Health, Education and Environment
For the seventh consecutive year, the Bank continued its support to the deserving students of Shree Mahendra Shanti High School in Bhaktapur by providing incentives/scholarships through VISCOSS programme.
Responding to the need of affected people due to the recent floods in Far Western and Eastern Region of the country, the Bank has stepped forward and extended financial support to the flood victims amounting to NPR 500,001.00
The Bank had earlier partnered an initiative ‘Sahayogi Haath haru’ launched by Annapurna Post (AP), a local national daily by extending its financial support to the Koshi flood victims for an amount of NPR 200,000.
In the capacity of co-sponsor of Senior Nepal National Cricket Team, SCB Nepal branded the Team for ICC World Cricket League Div 5 Cricket Tournament held in Jersey and for the ACC Trophy held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Bank has exclusive rights to brand the Senior National Cricket Team for its entire overseas matches. We are proud to be the co-sponsor of our National Team which has brought many glories to the nation.
Environment
The Bank has set up an Environment Committee which undertakes various initiatives for the Environmental conservation and awareness.
On World Environment Day 2008, about 100 trees were planted in the New Road and Lake Side in Pokhara, few trees at Head Office, Naya Baneshwore and Biratnagar branch. In an endeavor to spread awareness on the subject, our staff members displayed placards with environment messages outside our branch premises at all branches and made a pledge based on the Environment theme.
The Bank sponsored a program organised by Leadership for Environment & Development – Nepal (LEAD Nepal) to mark the Earth Day on 22 April which aimed to reduce vehicular emission thereby combating the pollution and creating awareness on the environment.
The Bank also entered into an agreement with Women Environment Preservation Committee (WEPCO) for recycle of paper waste generated by the Bank.