Integrated Reports

Our Integrated Reports are comprehensive accounts that summarize the key strategies and results of the company’s activities throughout the prior year, presented in a manner that is in line with disclosure regulations and best practice as required and advised by the SEC, BSP and PSE. Starting 2017, our reports have been prepared in accordance with the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework.

Design changes from year to year, as well as the use of infographics are intended to facilitate more effective communication with all our stakeholders, and to provide more concise and relevant narrative reports. These objectives are entirely in line with our aim to become more clear and transparent about the financial performance and state of affairs of the Bank.

We practice integrated reporting to align relevant information about the Bank’s strategy, governance systems, performance and future prospects in a way that reflects the economic, environmental and social environment in which it operates, for better appreciation by our stakeholders of our corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives. Through integrated reporting, we also recognize the importance of our clients and investors receiving adequate financial and non-financial information regarding the Bank’s operations.

Further, we also believe that the ability to review such information electronically is more cost-effective and provides greater benefit to the communities we serve and to our stakeholders:

• Environmental cost savings. On average, one tree produces just enough paper for 100 copies of an 80-page annual report. Average length of an annual report in the financial sector has risen to over 150 pages. Primary environmental costs for annual report production relates to the chemical bleaching processes and water use attached to paper production. It takes more water to produce one ton of paper than any other commodity.   
  
• Significant cost reduction for shareholders. The average cost of producing and distributing annual reports has steadily risen in the past years. Heightened regulatory expectations have likewise increased the length of annual reports.
  
• More efficient means of communication are now available. There has been strong growth in Philippine households, including clients and investors of the Bank that have smartphone, email and internet access. A greater percentage of the population is mobile and online.
  

In this respect, we will begin to provide access to electronic or digital copies only of our integrated reports at our branches, in lieu of printing and displaying hard copies. This alternate compliance, which has been approved by the BSP, is in support of our long-term sustainability initiatives.  
Additional information, including management commentary on year-on-year performance, may be found in the SEC disclosures elsewhere on our website.