For its range of initiatives and substantial investment in supporting social and environmental issues in the special administrative region, Bank of China (Hong Kong) wins the award this year.
AfE 2024
The bank, through its BOCHK Charitable Foundation, supports a breadth of social causes, from poverty alleviation and youth development to environmental protection and carbon reduction, arts and culture, and sports development.
By the end of last year, it had supported over 80 charitable projects across these areas, donating a total of HK$36 million ($4.6 million), which helped over six million people – twice the number who benefited from its donations in 2022.
In addition, the bank has also cultivated a volunteer army of 8,400 employees across the group to support its work in the community and give something back. Impressively, these employees organized and participated in 145 individual community activities last year, notching up a total of over 23,000 volunteer service hours.
Financial inclusion is another key issue for the bank, and last year it focused on helping elderly customers by introducing a simplified version of its mobile banking app and a finger vein biometric system. The accessibility campaign also included expanding the coverage of its banking network to more remote public housing estates. For instance, it opened a branch in the Kai Tak development area of East Kowloon.
Sustainability has become one of the most important social and environmental issues in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, and BOCHK has been an innovator in its financial support of customers wanting to be more sustainable.
The bank was the first bank in Hong Kong to launch green mortgages and green personal loans, and demand has rocketed, increasing by 274% and 62%, respectively last year.
BOCHK is also focused on its own sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint. A key development last year in supporting that aim was to create a platform to collect its carbon-emission and energy-consumption data.