Doha Bank has won the ‘Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability 2020’, with Doha Bank Group CEO Dr. R. Seetharaman receiving the award in a ceremony held online.

The event was hosted by Institute of Directors, India, and attended by distinguished bankers, academics, environmentalists, economists, legislators and policy makers.

Seetharaman said, “This is a milestone achievement in our efforts towards sustainability. It gives us a boost to strengthen our efforts towards sustainable development. Doha Bank will continue to work on sustainable development of its stakeholders.

“Green Banking and Climate Change Financing are the key initiatives to promote green economies. Doha Bank advocates and practices Green Banking, which is one of the core business philosophies that will support sustainability into the future. Banks should align lending activities with environmental cause.”

He added: “They should develop environmental and social risk management and expand the scope of risk management to include social and environment risk also. Public Private Partnership (PPP) models can potentially address the challenges posed by climate change and there should be policies to attract private sector investment.”

Due to Doha Bank’s unwavering commitment to carbon neutrality, the bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) to explore areas of mutual collaboration in sustainability and carbon neutrality.

Doha Bank, a pioneer in Qatar for annual sustainability disclosures, has been publishing these disclosures for more than a decade. Its sustainability reporting is guided by the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) ESG reporting methodology since 2016. Doha Bank was the first listed company on the Qatar Stock Exchange to be included in the FTSE4Good Index and the bank also received an MSCI ESG Rating of BB.

Gulf Times