The FINANCIAL — The idea of CSR was born in the 70s. However, it was actively introduced only in the XXI century by Western companies. Pursuant to UN definition, CSR is considered the care of a company, employee, customer, directly or indirectly related to society and/or the environment.
1. Present the list and description of all CSR projects implemented by BR:
BR permanently shares its corporate social responsibility towards its customers, staff, stakeholders, suppliers, and society as a whole. It is truly very difficult to specifically name all the CSR actions performed by BR over the year. As we have continuously implemented various and multi-profile CSR projects.
As a result of August’s events, the attention of major companies and even individuals was focused on the support of victims of the war. In the scope of charity, BR did really very much. GEL 500,000 was allocated for the support of war victims through the BR charity fund Tsiskari. A special account was opened for BR staff and clients to contribute to for the relief of the victims. BR staff collected clothes and food for needy people suffering from the effects of the war. BR’s understanding of CSR is: Care, Share and Respect – and this is the practice applied by BR and the whole SG Group. Due to these hard times, employees of SG HQ, under their own initiative, collected 400 kg of clothes and sent them to Georgia in support of these people.
Indeed charity has been deemed a most topical issue this year – BR has implemented various CSR projects in different directions, such as support and care of Georgian culture – BR together with Redix participated in the renovation and rehabilitation of the Marjanishvili old house-museum.
Apart from charity assistance to war victims, BR contributed GEL 50,000 to an investment agency for the support of needy families and took part in a charity concert organized by the Ianvana Foundation.
BR supported the famous Georgian Jazz singer Maia Baratashvili, who had her debut in London. In June, BR organized a football tournament for youth with special prizes and rewards in order to involve them in sound active life and avoid wasting their time in street life.
BR delivered computers to the French-Georgian school in Zugdidi. Even Christmas and New Year traditional corporate gifts for customers and partners were suspended this year – the relevant budget will be additionally transferred to those suffering from the war.
Bank Republic implements responsible activities on a daily basis in its core business transactions. BR has sound corporate governance, strict risk management policy, compliance, anti-money laundering policies, transparent finance, on-time tax payments, etc. The Bank shares full responsibility towards customers while offering various products such as micro-lending, auto loans, student loans, credits to SMEs as a social effort to develop the country and reduce poverty.
Bank Republic is socially responsible towards its staff thus offering various new projects for the benefit of its employees, among them: staff loans with beneficial conditions, health insurance packages, a canteen in the BR building, recruitments, dress code and ethical behaviour.
BR takes full responsibility to train, educate and develop the skills of its employees, as a professional staff force is the guarantee of a company’s success. A training centre has been created in the Bank where employees get appropriate training internally as well as externally within SG Group’s subsidiaries. BR participated in the creation of Inter-Bank’s training centre organized by the Banks’ Association of Georgia.
This year BR employees for the first time had the great opportunity to acquire the listed stocks of SocGen under discounted terms and appropriate conditions. The desire to purchase the shares was quite high among employees and GESOP (the Global Employee Ownership Programme) implementation was rather successful.
Apart from its staff, Bank Republic is active in the education system in general. BR participated in various programmes for the support and development of the education system in Georgia. The Bank financed several educational programmes of successful students, hired talented ones from various universities and supported their career development as well.
2. How long-term are the CSR projects implemented by you:
In general CSR is implemented permanently; it cannot be a “single shot” event. It actually accompanies business activities throughout the whole process without any hindrance. When one project seems to be at an end, another starts immediately. CSR is the attitude, sense and vision of the bank – it is responsibility towards everyone from the partners down: the customer, staff, shareholder, supplier, etc. The sense of responsibility is shared during the whole period and revealed by various actions and deeds performed in terms of CSR.
3. Where do you mainly put your investments:
BR, being a member of SG Group, which has quite large experience in this direction, shares CSR and submits its social contribution within the scope of 10 CSR principles conducted by its Global Compact. BR shares its responsibility towards customers, staff and environment through charity, sponsorship, and other actions.
4. What is the mission and vision of your company:
• Day-to-day business, attention and behaviour: Care, Share and Respect.
• Care of Image and Public Acceptance.
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