Aya Bank
The May tour by English football team Leeds United may not have won Leeds many friends outside Myanmar, as foreign critics railed against touring a country that ethnically cleanses its Rohingya Muslim minority, but that wasn’t the point for tour sponsor Ayeyarwady Bank – its focus was all domestic.
Myanmar’s second-largest bank won widespread national prominence while local kids from multi-ethnic backgrounds got to attend a series of football clinics staged by Leeds stars.
The tour was part of Aya’s wider corporate social responsibility efforts during a busy year when it built hospitals and schools and financed ambulances across the country.
Zaw Zaw’s Aya Bank claims to have committed $90 million in CSR efforts since it was founded in 2010. Beyond sorely needed infrastructure, staff are regularly encouraged to donate blood and plant trees. Aya also sponsors disaster management programmes for vulnerable rural areas in the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) river delta region, and it provided financial support for relief camps for flood victims in four stricken townships after recent inundations.