Social responsibility

Social responsibility at Sparebank

The role of the savings bank is a traditional one in our society. activities of Sandnes Sparebank. Employees shall not behave A savings bank plays an important role as a community in any way that weakens the confidence that Sandnes facilitator for both the local business community and the Sparebank enjoys with authorities, customers, partners customers in the bank’s catchment area. To be a savings bank or the society at large. This ethical standard is part of the in , in itself entails a significant social responsibility. responsibility that Sandnes Sparebank has as a member of the community, and contributes to maintain the confi- In order to act in a socially responsible manner, Sandnes dence it enjoys in society. The Bank’s ethical guidelines are Sparebank has to consider how its business affects people, regularly reviewed. The purpose of which is to strengthen community and environment. It is part of the Bank’s social the organization’s culture and the ethical awareness among responsibility to create value and be profitable. That way, all Bank employees. The ethical guidelines makes the bank we contribute to economic growth and development of stronger and more secure with respect to the risk of commit- the community. However, how the money is made is not ting mistakes and malpractice. All Bank employees have signed unimportant. We shall act responsibly and develop products the ethical guidelines and taken a mandatory ethics course. and services that are not provided at the expense of people, ethics or environment. Notification of non-compliance Sandnes Sparebank has its own procedures for notification Ever since Sandnes Sparebank was founded in 1875, of non-compliance in the work place. The Working Environ- the further development of the local community of which ment Act directs the Bank to have procedures in place for we are a part, has been a key to the Bank’s daily activities. notification of non-compliance. In addition, the Bank wants to With our local knowledge and closeness to customers, we provide its employees with a clear procedure for the handling make assessments that take into account our responsibility of notifications and to provide information about the protec- to the community, as well as finance and risk. tion given to both the employee reporting the issue and the employee who is subject of the report. A good working environ- ment shall have a low threshold with respect to speaking up Ethical business operations about work place issues. The procedure also provides clear Ethical guidelines procedural rules. All activities at Sandnes Sparebank shall be characterized by a high degree of integrity and professionalism. This requires Anti-moneylaundering superior professionalism and qualities such as caution, honesty The Bank’s procedures are based on the Money Laundering and objectivity in all parts of the operations and business Act, with its associated regulation and circulars from the

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Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority. The objective transportation to and from work. In procurement, sustainable of the procedures is to prevent and uncover transactions materials are always considered first. Our customers do only related to the proceeds from criminal acts or to acts of have to use paper to a limited extent – almost everything terrorism. The Bank’s chief tasks are to provide good checking is done digitally. No serious occupational accidents took and registration of customers, risk assessment of all customers, place or were reported during the year. ongoing follow-up of customers, investigation of suspicious transactions and customers, and reporting to Norwegian Environmental product – Green Car Loan National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution Sandnes Sparebank wishes to reward customers who are of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim). being proactively environmentally friendly. Therefore, the Bank is offering a lower rate of interest on Green Car Loans, Information security a climate friendly loan, defining an environmentally friendly The main purpose of information security is to safeguard car in the same way as the Norwegian government and the Bank’s information systems against misuse, destruction the European Parliament. The Bank’s website has a review and unauthorized access. At the same time, we have to ensure of the cars that qualify for a Green Car Loan. satisfactory availability of our systems. The Bank’s information security policy and overall requirements to security measures, Digital communication forms the basis for all use of data technology, including Most customers receive information about their customer processing, storage or transmission of data or information. relationship and accounts via mobile banking, Internet banking, The prevention of breaches of security makes it possible their Internet banking mailbox and e-mail. We are continuously to discover any breaches quickly and enables us to initiate digitizing more processes and customer activities. effective countermeasures before a breach has an adverse impact on our customers, our business or our employees. There is tight cooperation with Eika IT and Eika Security Customers to secure an up-to-date picture of the outside world and Customer satisfaction to enable the implementation of necessary measures in The best feedback we get about our improvement potential the Bank, internally and together with Eika. All users of the is from our customers. Thus, surveys are regularly conducted Sandnes Sparebank IT systems are required to familiarize among the Bank’s customers. In addition to CSS surveys through themselves and adhere to the Bank’s policy and its related Eika, we have also initiated our own surveys via SMS-messages guidelines. and Facebook.

An available bank Environment The Bank has good availability with respect to customer An aware bank enquiries by telephone, e-mail, Internet and social media. Our bank causes little pollution of the external environment. The customer service center is open in the evenings and Yet, we are concerned about operating in an environmentally during weekends, and customers may also get assistance friendly manner, and have proper guidelines for the use and via the Bank’s Facebook pages 24/7. The Eika Customer handling of paper, and the sorting and recycling of electronic/ Service Center is also able to assist our customers by IT equipment. We pursue the lowest possible power telephone with respect to technical enquiries regarding consumption and encourage our employees to use public mobile banking, internet banking and credit cards.

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Distribution and value creation

Retained earnings Employees (payroll cost) 25 % 24%

Gift Fund 3%

Allocated to dividends to equity capital certificate holders 6 %

Consumption of goods and services* 30% Government (tax cost + excise taxes) 12 %

Organization and employees Total value creation

Human Resource Policy Amounts in NOK ’000 2016

It is a fundamental principle of the Bank’s personnel policy Employees (payroll cost) 121,714

that women and men shall have the same opportunities for Consumption of goods and services* 153,222 qualifying for all kinds of work, and that their career opportu- Government (tax cost + excise taxes) 59,894 nities shall be the same. Furthermore, everybody shall have Allocated to dividends to equity capital certificate holders 28,769 equal opportunities regardless of ethnicity, national origin, skin Allocated to gift fund 15,270 color, language, religion, faith or functional ability. Working environment surveys at the Bank show that the employees Retained earnings 127,429 are well satisfied with their work place, and of the opinion Total distributed value creation** 506,298 that the working environment is good. Pay reflects the * Other operating expences + write down and losses on lending and guarantees. individual employee’s qualifications and position. ** Net income (net interest income + other operating income) - write down and losses on lending and guarantees + write down on repossessed assets).

Employee satisfaction An employee satisfaction survey is conducted annually among all the Bank’s employees. The purpose of the survey is to evaluate commitment, motivation and satisfaction. 2016 was a demanding year for the organization, with, inter alia, major losses, a rights issue and a new Managing Director. Neverthe- less, employees are reporting very high general satisfaction

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and motivation, and pride in working for the Bank. Please refer country’s most popular artists, Eva & the Heartmaker, Paperboys, to the Annual Report for further information regarding the Izabell & Tore Pang, Alida, Paperboys and others. Kulturkom- organization and employees. paniet was in charge of the event and provided a party for all ages in a very satisfactory manner. The Bank promoted the town party on Facebook and other places, and rarely have Over NOK 10 million in gifts and sponsorships the people of Sandnes shown such interest in participation. Sandnes Sparebank supports sports, culture, charitable organizations and other socially useful purposes in the form #Med Uansett of gifts and sponsorships. In 2016, the Bank contributed #MedUansett is the collective term for the long-term project over NOK 10 million. Activities included: of the football club, ”the New Sandnes Ulf”. The objective is to give partners and private individuals more in Sandnes Sparebank Gift Fund return for their loyalty, and for supporting the club regardless, Every year, Sandnes Sparebank disburses money to clubs i.e. #MedUansett. Sandnes Sparebank contributed extra funding and associations in Sandnes. In 2016, this was also done to Sandnes Ulf and #Med Uansett of NOK 1,500,000. through the ”Thank you, Sandnes” promotion. The reason why we are running this promotion, is that we want to create Support for the purchase of iPads greater awareness and involvement around the awards by In recent years, there have been pilot projects at grade schools the Gift Fund. We wanted to involve the whole town in this where whole classes have been equipped with iPads provided activity. Clubs and associations are encouraged to upload by the school. The experiences have been good, and the their application to the ”takksandnes.no” website. In addition schools report that teaching with the aid of iPads provides to applying for money from the Gift Fund, ”the club” could, better opportunity for adapted teaching to pupils with special by engaging its members and others in the local community, needs – both pupils with learning disabilities and pupils with win an extra NOK 50,000 for its coffers. The citizens of Sandnes faster than normal progression. Difficult municipal finances may also take part in the decision regarding which applicant have resulted in lapsing purchases of iPads for more school they think deserve the prize by voting on the same website. classes. With our iPad project, we made it possible for schools Social media were used to communicate the promotion, in our market area to apply for one or more class sets. With and votes were cast via each individual’s Facebook profile. the region’s need for developing new jobs through innovation In 2016, it was the Society for the Protection of Animals, and skill transfer, this is our contribution to preparing the region North Jæren, that received the greatest number of votes for the future. The municipalities of Sandnes and and won the bonus pool of NOK 50,000. The award was received support in the amount of NOK 1,250,000 for the warmly received by both the organization itself, animal purchase of iPads. lovers and our customers in general. In total, gifts of over NOK 1,050,000 were granted by the Gift Fund in 2016. Gift to SEARCH (NMBU) Sandnes Sparebank gave a gift of NOK 2,000,000 to the Moving-in party for the whole town Sandnes Education And Research Center Høyland. The On May 07, 2016, we invited the whole town to a party outside University of Stavanger (UiS) and Health Stavanger / Stavanger our new premises at Havnespeilet. There were many stands University Hospital (SUS), two weighty academic institutions, with fun activities for children, food and drink stalls and handing have not had access to research facilities with animal stables. out of ice cream and yellow gas balloons. The party was In Norway, premises allowing research and surgery on animal concluded with a tremendous concert by a bunch of the models (goat, sheep and pig) are available to all other university

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hospitals and universities with major health education programs. The partnership was established in 2009 and is still ongoing. The idea behind SEARCH is that a new biomedical research In 2016, SAFI was given around 170,000 by Sandnes Sparebank. center at Høyland will form a hub for scientists within both human and veterinary medicine, and contribute to collabo- Gift to the city in connection with the Blink Festival ration between academic institutions and the business in Sandnes. community. The BLINK Ski Festival was organized for the first time in 2006, and has since evolved into the World’s largest summer skiing Sandnes Art and Cultural Center event. Each year, over 100 World Cup level cross-country Sandnes Sparebank is one of the main partners of the Sandnes skiers and biathletes join up for the events in and Art and Cultural Center. In addition to being part of the Cultural Sandnes. The Blink Festival attracts a big audience, and in Center Guild, the Bank also donates a gift of NOK 100,000 2016, Sandnes Sparebank provided NOK 300,000 for the annually. The purpose of the Guild is to ensure that the cultural Hanne Boel Concert as its contribution to the festival. center has ”a little extra” to develop its program, and getting companies to be good ”ambassadors” for the center. Sandneslauget wants to promote Sandnes town In 2016, our gift to Sandneslauget (the Sandnes Guild), was Major gift to Vitenfabrikken and Pia Myrvold’s Art Avatar NOK 150,000. The guild consists of some of the major players The NOK 600,000 gift enables Vitenfabrikken to set up within town development, housing, construction and finance. Pia Myrvold’s interactive art exhibition, Art Avatar. With lights, sounds and movements, the exhibition enables the public The growth rate indicates that the population of Sandnes will to get involved as active participants. Separate 200 m2 pass 100,000 by 2030, meaning that Sandnes will be Norway’s premises will house the exhibition at Vitenfabrikken until fastest growing town for a long time to come. Sandneslauget spring. The general manager of Vitenfabrikken has great was founded to further develop Sandnes as a healthy town expectations for the exhibition and has faith in great attend- and attractive business address. ance. The exhibition has previously been set up at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and would probably not have become TV charity drive 2016 a reality in our town without the gift from the Bank. This year too, Sandnes Sparebank decided to support the TV charity drive with NOK 50,000. The TV charity drive shall save Finansstudium ved Universitetet i Stavanger lives and provide extensive health care to some of world’s Sandnes Sparebank is one of several finance institutions that, most vulnerable people – people overtaken by war and conflict. through ”Stiftelsen for Anvendt Finans” (SAFI - the foundation The funds raised goes towards the work of the Red Cross for applied finance) has contributed to the establishment in nine countries: Syria, Lebanon, South Sudan, Afghanistan, of a program for education in finance at the University Myanmar, Somalia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. of Stavanger (UIS). The purpose of the foundation is to The money will also be used to help refugees that have promote research, teaching and other activities within the area already arrived in Norway. of finance at UIS, and contribute to providing the financial industry in the region with increased skill levels through the Sponsorships supply of newly educated candidates and access to research Sandnes Sparebank is a general sponsor of the city’s own competence. The Bank is committed to contribute a total football team, Sandnes Ulf. In addition, the Bank is an of NOK 2,500,000 to this cause. important sponsor of several local football and handball clubs and other sport clubs in Sandnes, Stavanger and .

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