Reading through banks’ pitches for Euromoney's Awards for Excellence always provides a good sense of the shifting priorities across the industry.
Of course, all firms put clients at the very centre of their business, with the occasional nod to shareholders over how profitable such altruism can be. And employees get a look in too, with AI chatbots to answer questions and programmes for diversity and inclusion in the workforce.
We approve of one bank that provides staff with an inclusive language guide along with advice on gender equality in child raising and encourages women who wish to return to work after a career-break raising their families.
Could the project be listed through an I Bee O?
But it is the environment and biodiversity that can test the limits of banks’ ingenuity.
Hats off, then, to VÚB banka in Slovakia, a unit of Intesa Sanpaolo, for doing its bit for the bees while also showing its digital prowess.
It tells us it has created a font from leftover beeswax and transformed the typography into an electronic version for use in text editors.
VÚB sent this font as a joint thank you to everyone who donated to WWF Slovakia through the campaign page in the name of protecting the bees.
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