In accordance with sustainability reporting best practice, BOQ Group regularly reviews the most material environmental, social, and governance issues affecting our business. These topics represent the issues that are relevant and impactful to both stakeholders and to the business.
The assessment identified 14 topics of material importance, which align to the BOQ Group value drivers. The following three key issues were elevated from the prior assessment:
- Customer experience - delivering exceptional customer experiences through consistent, fair, easy-to-use and accessible-from-anywhere banking products and services;
- Data governance - ensuring the ethical and safe protection of data and safeguarding systems from cybersecurity threats; and
- Fraud and financial crime - ensuring that the company and its customers are protected from fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes.
These issues highlight the increasing importance of the digital transformation of our systems for our people and customers.
For more information on how we manage these sustainability focus areas please refer to the FY22 Sustainability Report.
We manage a range of sustainability issues as part of our everyday business operations:
Customers
- Offering the right products in key customer segments
- Customer satisfaction, engagement and advocacy
- Helping customers in financial hardship
- Fair fees and interest rates
- Lending responsibly to customers
- Access to our products and services
People
- Healthy franchise partnership model
- Culture and work environment
- Employee engagement
- Workplace health and safety
- Workforce attraction and retention
- Diversity and inclusion
- Remuneration including link to long-term performance
Economic and financial
- Market risk
- Changes to or a deterioration in economic conditions
- Sustainability of housing prices
- Balance sheet strength
- Efficient expenditure and use of resources
- Shareholder returns
Risk, compliance, governance and operations
- Credit risk
- Operational risk
- Ethics and business conduct (including risk culture)
- Identifying and responding to external fraud
- Simplifying processes and procedures
Environment
- Climate change and weather events
- Environmental risk of customers we lend to
- Environmental impact of our own property, assets and operations
Technology
- Changes in technology
- Digitising operations
- Information and cyber security
- Digital disruption
Other
- Changes in regulation and government policy
- Litigation risk
- Strategic partners
- Stakeholder engagement
- Brand and reputation
- Financial literacy of Australian population
- Community contribution
