Titled “Towards a Cleaner and Brighter Future”
Boubyan Bank Releases Its 2022 Sustainability Report and Vision
Al-Tuwaijri: Boubyan Incorporates Sustainability Metrics in Its Operations to Achieve Sustainable Development and Growth 

Al-Haqqan: Sustainability Framework Is Implemented through a Series of Strategic Initiatives to Make a Permanent Positive Impact 

Boubyan Bank Is Committed to Maintaining Communication Channels to Reinforce Communication, Transparency, and Trust
Sustainability Has Become a Main Element in Strategies of Companies and Countries to Be Aligned with Kuwait Vision 2035
The Report Highlights Boubyan Bank’s CSR Role; a Main Pillar in Implementing Sustainability Standards 

As a part of its ongoing efforts to keep up with the most important international and regional developments in sustainability and governance, and the impact thereof on ESG aspects, Boubyan Bank has released its 3rd Sustainability Report for 2022, “Towards a Cleaner and Brighter Future”, which reflects on Boubyan Bank’s Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) journey and presents the Bank’s performance against various sustainability metrics.  
Boubyan Bank’s CEO - Private, Consumer & Digital Banking, Mr. Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri, stated: “The release of Boubyan Bank’s 3rd Sustainability Report for the year 2022 comes in line with the bank’s ongoing efforts to achieve sustainability, both locally and internationally, while highlighting the bank’s efforts to encourage sustainable growth and embed sustainability in the bank’s strategies, the thing which is aligned with the New Kuwait Vision 2035.”
“Boubyan adopts a strategic pathway that incorporates sustainability metrics and the implementation approach thereof in a manner that guarantees mitigating risks, reinforces its core banking business, and improves customer satisfaction levels to ensure the highest levels of services.”, he added. 
Al-Tuwaijri elaborated: “In this report, we explore Boubyan Bank’s journey towards sustainability in its operations to ensure sustainable growth through actions that include minimizing environmental footprint, uplifting socio-economic well-being, and the ESG strategy.”
** ESG Strategy
On his part, Mr. Khaled Al-Haqqan, Executive Manager - Business Continuity & Sustainability at Boubyan Bank, stated: “The report sheds light on the performance of Boubyan Bank in 2022 across the main areas to highlight the most important paths followed by the bank regarding sustainability and combating negative socio-environmental aspects, as well as those negative aspects associated with ESG, which are among the important aspects to evaluate the bank’s performance and positioning locally, regionally, and internationally.”
“As a leading Islamic bank, Boubyan Bank’s ESG strategy, established in 2022, revolves around monitoring and measuring these three metrics, and reporting such achievements to concerned stakeholders.”, he added.
Al-Haqqan went on to add: “Boubyan Bank always seeks to safeguard shareholders’ rights, protect the investment value, and minimize conflict of interest through commitment to implementing all standards, and enhancing the role of shareholders in participating in decision-taking processes related to their investments.”
** Commitment to Transparency 
The report highlights Boubyan Bank’s commitment to implementing robust governance through accountable board performance, data and information security, and transparent disclosures, in addition to the bank’s achievements during 2022 by earning many awards from renowned regional and international institutions such as receiving an upgrade of its credit rating from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, where the bank’s “long-term issuer credit rating” received an upgrade to A2 and A respectively; such ratings placed Boubyan Bank in the lead of local banks and ahead of all Islamic banks rated by Standard & Poor’s in Kuwait, while ranking second at the level of all local banks rated by Moody’s and Fitch.
Another major achievement for the bank was being on the list of Forbes Top 100 Listed Companies in the Middle East. This list, published annually by Forbes, is prepared against a set of financial criteria, the most significant of which are market valuation, sales, total assets, and net profits of the financial year.
Progress of Digital Transformation and Customer Service Excellence
The report emphasized that the digital transformation strategy planned by Boubyan Bank was not a coincidence; rather, it was in line with a well-studied strategy, especially amid the boom of the digital Islamic banking industry worldwide, thus leading the bank to be named the World’s Best Islamic Digital Bank for the past 8 years in a row.
Through well-studied steps, Boubyan managed to be among the early Islamic financial institutions to consider digital transformation as the fulcrum of regional expansion and the upgrade of the digital infrastructure, driving Boubyan’s digital products and services towards new regional markets, thus achieving more growth to reinforce its leadership and status as a leading digital Islamic financial institution.
Boubyan Bank’s digital banking solutions come with top-notch services that ensure the enhancement of customer experience, operational efficiency, personalization and data privacy and security. Over the past year, the most prominent of which were Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the bank complements its governance with innovative digital solutions for its customers.
One of the things that make such services stand out is how aligned they are with international trends in sustainable development, especially with regard to environmental protection through minimizing unnecessary usage of items such as papers as well as customers’ visits to branches, which means lower levels of gas emissions from vehicles used in transportation to branches.   
Boubyan Bank spares no effort across its various departments to evaluate and improve our customers’ experience. Hence, Boubyan Bank remained atop the pyramid of customer service across the Kuwaiti banking sector, which was evidenced by earning the award for the Best Islamic Bank in Customer Service for the twelfth consecutive year since 2010 by Service Hero, the international consumer-driven customer satisfaction index.
** Corporate Social Responsibility ... a Main Pillar 
The report further highlighted the bank’s CSR role, while pointing out that during 2022 Boubyan Bank reiterated its prominent CSR leadership position and sustainable role in supporting the development and growth journey in Kuwait through several events and initiatives that highlighted the bank’s domestic leadership; one of the most prominent initiatives was the “Speak Up and We Will Listen” campaign which highlighted the importance of mental health for the society, and its role in maintaining the health of individuals and their physical safety.
The bank concluded 2022 with the bank’s organization of one of its most iconic CSR initiatives to support the youths, namely, “Kuwait Coffee Festival”, which was organized for the fifth consecutive year.
Additionally, the bank organized many sports events for both genders, the most prominent of which was “Boubyan Cycling Tournament” in memory of one of the bank’s employees, Engineer Alaa Maeen Al-Otaibi, who passed away while biking almost one year ago. Also, the bank entered into a partnership with Padel IN Courts for one year in order to help promote the game among Kuwaiti youths as the game is gaining grounds globally and regionally.  
The 5th Noor Boubyan Campaign organized by Boubyan Bank in collaboration with the International Islamic Charitable Organization and the Dinarain Initiative succeeded in confirming the renowned charitable and humanitarian role of Kuwait worldwide, by achieving the campaign’s goals of successful removal of cataract, along with other charitable activities.
** Leadership and Inclusion in Youth Empowerment and Supporting SMEs 
Furthermore, the report has a special section dedicated to Boubyan Bank’s commitment to supporting SMEs as well as supporting the growth of the Kuwaiti economy through the bank’s products and services, which cater for the needs of the bank’s SME customers. As a result, Euromoney International named Boubyan Bank the “Best Bank for SMEs in Kuwait” in recognition of the bank’s achievements over the past years in supporting SMEs, in addition to the bank’s outstanding contribution to giving SMEs a foothold in the local economy by offering them many services that cater for their business needs.
Moreover, the report dwelt upon the role played by the bank and its leadership among local banks, and the private sector, in terms of implementing several important initiatives towards the growth and development of its employees, sharpening their skills, and preparing them through training programs. At the level of women empowerment in leadership positions, 17% women occupying management positions, while our overall Kuwaitization percentage reached 75% across all management levels.
Last year, the Change Management Office at Boubyan Bank completed the requirements for the ISO:9001 (Quality Management Systems); this highlights Boubyan Bank’s commitment to its vision aiming at adopting the best international QMS standards to ensure the highest levels of service.
Environmental Impacts
The report also sheds light on the bank’s achievements in terms of environmental aspects, recognizing the impact of operations on the environment since Boubyan Bank is committed to measuring and implementing sustainable practices to reduce its carbon footprint, energy, water consumption and waste generation. 
The bank has successfully reduced its Scope III emissions due to employee commute by 3%. Additionally, Boubyan Bank’s subsidiaries, the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) and the BB2 Tech Co decreased their Scope I emissions by 68%. 
Along with reductions in emissions, the bank has also decreased paper consumption by 145,000 papers/year due to Lean projects. 
In 2022, Boubyan Bank has promoted sustainable finance and customer satisfaction, and the bank is seeking to incorporate ESG considerations into investment and lending decisions, offering conscious products and services and facilitating SME support.