Awards for Excellence 2018
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Under Thiago Fernandes, head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) for Latin America, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is changing the way corporate philanthropy operates in Brazil; this year it wins Euromoney’s award for Latin America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.
Fernandes’ NGO background ensures that in community and employee engagement every measurement is considered to ensure the greatest impact.
Take its work with United Way in Brazil to develop a financial education game for children from seven to 15 years old in schools in low-income areas. The game underwent extensive testing with teachers and 20,000 students to ensure it would be effective and sustainable.
After just six months, 77% of the schools performed better in financial knowledge and now the project is expanding to a further 10,000 students – with the possibility of creating a low-cost version that could become a social enterprise and used in other countries.
Saving is one of the most important elements in financial inclusion in developing markets and is often ignored.
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Thiago Fernandes |
“Many people don’t know what saving is because they’ve never had money,” says Fernandes. “We need to break this cycle and put this concept into their minds while they are young. We don’t want a token effort, as we need transformation.”
BAML takes this same approach of measuring impact right across its CSR efforts.
It supported Santo Caos, an engagement consulting agency, to create the first study of its kind in Brazil on how racial inclusion benefits overall engagement in the workplace and how companies can take advantage of it.
With Aliança Empreendedora, the bank also launched the first Brazilian microentrepreneur map. The map catalogues over 2,000 organizations that support microentrepreneurship and gathers in-depth information on another 600, bringing much needed data to this area to enable more effective strategic decisions for its development. Among its employees in the region, BAML applies the same diversity and inclusion efforts it does globally and has increased the number of women in middle and senior management roles.
