Four financials have been recognised as among the best Australian companies for their reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, with one big four bank named as fifth-best in the world.
According to research by The Global ESG Monitor, which analysed companies in Europe, US and Australia, Westpac was found to be the fifth-best in the world and the best in Australia for its handling of ESG. It was also the only non-European company to sit in the top five.
According to FE Analytics, the share price of Westpac rose 8.7% over the year to 3 March, 2021, and was held in the top 10 by Australian equity funds such as Dimensional Australian Value Trust (9.3%), AXA Wholesale Australian Equity Value (8.3%) and Maple-Brown Abbott Australian Equity Trust (7.2%).
However, the firm was fined last year for anti-money laundering breaches and the $1.3 billion fine from AUSTRAC made it the third-most fined bank in the world.
The other four financials recognised as ESG leaders were big four banks ANZ and NAB in sixth and seventh place and QBE Insurance in eighth.
Both ANZ and NAB had seen double-digit share price rises at 18% and 10% respectively but QBE had fared worse with share price losses of 28.5%.
In its full-year 2020 results, the firm posted a loss of US$1.5 billion ($1.94 billion) compared to a profit of US$550 million in the same period a year ago. The losses were the result of a disappointing underwriting result, reduction in investment and deferred tax assets in North America.
Australian companies were found to be leaders in making their ESG objectives clear in integrated reports and reporting ESG impacts in separate reports. However, they fell down on reporting names of stakeholder groups they engaged with, describing and defining boundaries in a supply chain and disclosing in-depth details.
The remaining companies on the list were Woodside Petroleum, Newcrest Mining, South32, Amcor, Woolworths and DEXUS.
Mining company South32 saw the best share price performance of the 10 firms overall with gains of 27%.
