February 12th 2018

To our Stakeholders,
I am pleased to confirm that The National Bank, which is based in the Palestinian Territories, supports the ten principles of the Global Compact with respect to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
With this communication, we express our intent to advance those principles within our sphere of influence. We are committed to making the Global Compact and its principles part of the strategy, culture and day-to-day operations of our company, and to engaging in
collaborative projects which advance the broader development goals of the United
Nations.. The National Bank continuously makes
clear statements of this commitment to our stakeholders and the general public.
We recognize that a key requirement for participation in the Global Compact is the
annual submission of a Communication on Progress (COP) that describes our company’s
efforts to implement the ten principles. We support public accountability and
transparency, and therefore commit to reporting on progress annually according to the Global Compact COP policy.

Sincerely yours,

Talal Nasereddin
Chairman of the board / The National Bank

The National Bank adopts the United Nations Global Compact principles of human rights. TNB respects human rights and makes sure to implement all its related principles in all day to day operations .TNB has made it clear that it refuses any kind of human rights abuses.

Human rights principles in The National Bank(TNB) are adopted in several ways; As a financial institution TNB believes that every Palestinian have the right to hold a bank account, have access to finance and benefit from services that banks provide and therefore, TNB has focused on reaching out to suburbs and rural areas in Palestine through its expansion plans, 7 out of 18 branches are located in Palestinian villages and rural areas believing that this could contribute towards financial inclusion.

Women form half of the Palestinian society, and are underserved financially in the Palestinian banking market. TNB was the leader in launching a special savings account that is dedicated to Palestinian women, after a research that was done on several phases, to figure out their exact financial need and provide it to them through this program. TNB found out that Palestinian women need financial security and when they were asked to define it, the answer was a house, steady income, educating their children and through the research it was also apparent that Palestinian women tend to save through buying gold. As a result, TNB has created “Hayati” Savings Program providing all these needs in one program. TNB has also financed a total sum of $2.5 Million as microloans for women, 125 projects were financed and have created an average of 3 to 4 jobs per project.
In 2017, TNB has launched the first comprehensive banking program for Palestinian women that include all the banking services varying from loans, accounts to cards, with preferential rates on interest rates and flexibility in payments. The percentages of gender inclusion kept rising, now females make 32% of TNB’s clients’ base, 51% of the savers are females and females who took MSME loans form 22.2% of the clients’ base and 21% of the e-services users are females.
In addition to its financial women empowerment program, In 2017, TNB has contributed to empowering Palestinian women through its sustainable CSR program in various sectors such as women health, supporting female journalists, women sports, women education and entrepreneurship.

TNB believes in gender equality and actively works on investing in their female employees through encouraging them to seek higher education, training courses and introducing them to the latest technologies reached in the field. Females at TNB form 35% of the employees and hold many vital positions such as managers and head of sections.
Our staff is also committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, neutrality and impartiality at work and outside. TNB refuses all kinds of abuses to human rights including discrimination and stereotyping, which has been made clear to all our employees and stakeholders.

Reports on regular basis, are provided by our Human Resources Department to our senior management team on implementing the UNGS’s human rights principles, if any violation occurs it will be reported instantly and correction actions are taken directly.

The National Bank adopts the United Nations Global Compact principles of labour, we also work within the regulations of the Palestinian Ministry of Labour, which ensures implementing all regulations including abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination.

TNB is an equal organization that believes in democracy and negotiations which will definitely lead to finding productive solutions to any potential problems, we have built an internal system to encourage collective bargaining and ease the communication between employees and the senior management team. TNB has developed a social committee for employees to ensure surrounding them with social activities and encourage keeping strong relationships between them and the senior management team, and hold bank retreats on regular basis to ensure high levels of communication between management and staff. TNB has also created a group on Facebook that includes all its employees and management to ensure no communication gap between all parties. TNB also provides health care insurance to all employees and their families. Motivations are granted on an annual base according to evaluations revised and signed by the employees themselves. TNB invests in their own employees by encouraging them to seek higher education, training courses and introducing them to the latest technologies reached in the field. Our Human Resource Department has circulated UNGS’s 10 principles to all our employees, and were asked to engage them in their day to day operations. TNB’s working environment is full of respect, neutrality and democracy. In the year 2015, The National Bank has signed the Women Empowerment Principles which is a joint initiative of the United Nations Global Compact to also advance gender equality in the workplace. Female staff form 35% of TNB’s employees. Female employees at TNB hold vital positions such as Managers and Head of Sections.

Our senior management team receives regular reports from the Human Resources Department concerning recruitment, and implementation of the labour principles. If any violation occurs, it is reported immediately and correction actions are taken instantly. Our PR department also provides senior management team with reports evaluating the satisfaction of employees, to guarantee a healthy work environment full of equality, respect and democracy.

The National Bank has adopted the United Nations Global Compact principles concerning the Environment. Ever since signing up with the UN Global Compact, environment related issues became one of the major priorities in our strategies. Environment is also one of the major pillars of our CSR policy.

At The National Bank, we consider protecting the environment as a main pillar in our business and CSR strategies. We are proud to be the first bank in Palestine to adopt and implement OPIC’s Social and Environmental policy, and as a result, we have created a monitoring system to track the projects we finance to fully meet international standards in protecting environment, preventing pollution, reducing global warming, protecting agricultural lands and natural resources, and supporting renewable energy sources projects. The National Bank boasts the largest Agricultural loans portfolio among banks in Palestine and has also developed a renewable energy sources loan program to encourage Palestinians use clean sources of energy with a lower impact on environment.
The National Bank has also contributed towards several initiatives and done several campaigns to raise the awareness on protecting the environment. The National Bank has also raised the value of volunteering within its staff by creating internal voluntary groups to contribute towards the community in line with its CSR program strategies. In the past year, TNB employees continue to prove their capabilities as individuals in contributing towards sustainable development of the Palestinian society through several environmental initiatives including: Greening and planting lands, helping farmers during harvest seasons, olive picking, cleaning and sweeping streets of neighborhoods and much more.

In addition to adopting UNGC’s principles on environment, The National Bank is also proud to be the first bank in Palestine to adopt and implement OPIC’s Social and Environmental policy. TNB has built a strict monitoring system to track its investments and projects adhering to compliance with law, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, labour right, protection of natural habitats, conservation of biological diversity, climate change, pollution prevention and resource efficiency, public health, physical and cultural heritage and the protection of agricultural lands and soil conservation. Reports are sent to senior management on regular basis to guarantee fulfilling the environmental related issues and implementing our friendly environment policy in all our operations.

The National Bank adopts the United Nations Global Compact principles on Anti-corruption. And works under other universal policies such as: Anti Money Laundering, Know Your Customer and Combating Terrorists Financing. And also adopts other universal policies concerning governance.TNB combats corruption in all its forms and refuses all kinds of extortion and bribery in addition to ensuring transparency and bank secrecy acts, which is our core value.

The National Bank always ensures that its operations are all done in compliance with the UNGC’s anti-corruption principles; reports on every client are made, sources of money must be identified, all precautionary procedures are taken in order to guarantee clean sources of money. TNB also maintains the highest levels of transparency and regulatory compliance, in accordance with the highest international and regional standards, implementing international policies such as Anti Money Laundering (AML), Combating Terrorists Financing (CTF), and Know Your Customer (KYC) in addition to the best practices of governance. In 2017, TNB has implemented the best governance practices by adding 3 new members to its board of directors, 2 of them are independents and one representing the minority shareholders, to ensure that all shareholders can participate in decision making.
TNB has created a new IT Audit Unit that is specialized in providing daily IT reports to the Audit department to better monitor the bank's operations.
UNGC’s principles on Anti-corruption are circulated to all TNB’s employees, and are asked to engage these principles in their day to day operations.

Our Compliance, Risk and Audit Departments regularly provide the BOD with reports concerning compliance with the UN Global Compact principles about Anti-corruption, if any violation occurs, it is reported directly to the Board of Directors and correction actions are taken immediately. TNB BOD committees always ensure that the bank complies with the local and international regulations and inspect the bank’s operations through the monitoring departments.