uab bank Limited clinches win at ESGBusiness Awards 2024
The private commercial bank was commended for its exemplary outlook that integrates sustainability into its core operations.
uab bank Limited brought home the Excellence Award - Myanmar for Sustainable Finance at the ESGBusiness Awards 2024, earning the recognition for taking part in addressing environmental and social challenges.
Highlights, achievements
uab bank has made significant milestones in its sustainability initiatives over the past year. A notable highlight is its support for the agriculture sector, with 15.3% of its loan portfolio dedicated to agricultural and related industries. This commitment underscores its focus on driving growth in vital sectors that support economic development.
In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the company has also allocated MMK920.6b towards financing projects in areas such as clean energy, housing, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This investment reflects its dedication to fostering sustainable development and addressing global challenges.
Furthermore, uab bank’s digital transformation efforts have yielded impressive results. It achieved a milestone of 1,000,000 digital wallet users, marking a significant step forward in its sustainable digital initiative. Additionally, its financial inclusion programmes have reached 18,000 individuals, expanding access to banking services and promoting economic participation.
The company also continuously enhances its financial infrastructure by opening six new branches nationwide. This improved uab bank’s reach and service capabilities. Its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is evident as well through its contribution of MMK500m towards various CSR activities.
Aside from these, uab bank regards investment in the workforce as a priority, with 60,914 man-hours dedicated to training over 2,000 employees. It also provided additional training to 105 trainees, 71 interns, and 278 college students, which reflects its dedication to career growth.
uab bank also demonstrates its commitment to gender equality and employment opportunities through its diverse workforce. It has 2,074 employees, 56% of which are female.
Notably, 65% of its management cadre consists of female staff. Furthermore, the company promoted 245 employees as part of its career advancement and succession planning initiatives.
On top of these, uab bank’s efforts to reduce carbon footprint have been successful. Its CO2 emissions per employee decreased to 0.902 metric tons in FY 2024, compared to the previous year. This achievement highlights its ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability.
Leading positive change
Staying true to its vision of “Leading the way towards a better Myanmar, humanising banking, connecting people, creating opportunities and changing lives,” uab bank embedded sustainability as part of its core operations. The bank acknowledges its vital role in driving economic growth, upholding social responsibility and promoting environmental stewardship—hence it ensures its long-term sustainability whilst addressing major environmental and social issues. In doing so, uab bank complies with the regulations of Central Bank of Myanmar, upholding strong internal governance.
The bank’s Sustainability Statement 2024 is a key communication tool, offering stakeholders a clear view of its progress towards its sustainability goals and its adherence to Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. This statement, covering the period from 1 April 2023 to 30 March 2024 (FY 2024), precedes the bank's comprehensive 2024 Sustainability Report.
uab bank’s strategy development process involves active engagement with stakeholders such as customers, shareholders, regulators, employees, business partners and the community. Through these interactions and materiality assessments, uab bank identifies key issues and aligns its strategy with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This alignment ensures that the bank’s efforts contribute to global sustainability initiatives, emphasising its commitment to creating opportunities, connecting people, and ultimately improving lives.
Stakeholder engagement
uab bank prioritises its stakeholders’ sentiment. The company seeks to understand their concerns regarding ESG issues through the engagement process in order to conduct a thorough materiality assessment.
An issue is considered material to the company if it meets two key criteria: it must affect operational aspects such as costs, growth, risk or trust; and it must be of significant importance to its stakeholders. When assessing materiality, the bank also considers how the issue aligns with its vision, mission, strategy, brand portfolio and geographical presence, as well as its ability to drive meaningful change.
After the assessment, the highly material concerns that arose were financial inclusion, customer satisfaction, job creation and enterprise development, training and talent management, financial stability, modernising banking, and supporting the agricultural sector.
These concerns were then incorporated into the strategies of the company. uab bank also established time-bound targets for each issue and allocated necessary resources to attain such goals.
The ESGBusiness Awards recognises and celebrates companies that lead the way in building a sustainable future. The awards programme honours businesses that demonstrate outstanding commitment and achievement in environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.
The ESGBusiness Awards is presented by ESGBusiness. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding commitment and achievement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].
