08/07/2026 05:25 AST
Boubyan Bank has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, highlighting the significant progress and tangible achievements it has made across Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices, reflecting its ongoing commitment to responsible banking and to enhancing its economic, social, and environmental impact through a long-term vision that supports sustainable development.
Published under the theme "Embedding ESG: Driving Responsible Growth" the report highlights the group's strong performance across various sustainability pillars, as well as progress in organizational resilience, responsible growth, innovation, empowerment of human cadres, community contributions, and environmental stewardship. It also underscores the bank's continued commitment to, and alignment with, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Kuwait Vision 2035, reinforcing its position as a responsible Islamic bank that places people and the environment at the heart of its decision-making.
Strong governance and organizational resilience
Commenting on the release of the report, Dr Bader Saad Al-Hashel, Boubyan Bank's Chief Risk Officer, said: "The year 2025 marked an important milestone in the bank's journey towards building a more sustainable and resilient banking model, focused on responsible growth and enhanced operational efficiency, guided by a forward-looking vision that anticipates future developments."
He added: "Sustainability at Boubyan Bank is not merely a reporting obligation; rather, it is an integrated institutional approach founded on the principles of fairness, transparency, integrity, and accountability. It serves as a cornerstone of the bank's corporate culture, and its governance and risk-management approach, helping build a more reliable operating environment capable of delivering long-term value. Throughout 2025, the bank maintained a robust control framework and disciplined organizational oversight, enabling it to maintain compliance with evolving regulatory requirements, all while strengthening its readiness to respond to evolving conditions and various challenges."
Al-Hashel went on to add: "Integrating ESG principles into the corporate strategy and business operations has become an essential part of decision-making and strategic prioritization. This has been complemented by continued investment in human capital and the promotion of a workplace built on diversity and equal opportunities, supporting the bank's ability to achieve balanced and sustainable growth."
He pointed out: "This comprehensive approach has driven all aspects of institutional performance positively, culminating in the bank's recognition with several prestigious international awards in innovation, digital transformation, banking services, and customer experience, demonstrating the success of the bank in embedding growth, sustainability, and institutional excellence in its banking model."
Digital transformation and customer experience
This institutional approach has driven the bank's journey across innovation, digital transformation, and customer experience enhancement. Boubyan Bank made significant progress in implementing several strategic projects aimed at improving operational efficiency and enhancing service quality, including advancing the core banking system upgrade project, upgrading card management systems, and proceeding with the implementation of its enterprise-wide artificial intelligence strategy.
These efforts culminated in a customer satisfaction score of 96 percent, reaffirming the bank's success in delivering a cutting-edge banking experience that meets evolving customer expectations and reinforces its position as one of the leading financial institutions in digital banking. This excellence crowned the bank with several prestigious international digital banking awards, including "World's Best Islamic Digital Bank" by Global Finance, "Best Islamic Digital Bank in Kuwait" by Euromoney International, and "Best Islamic Bank in Customer Service" for the 16th year in a row by Service Hero, the consumer-driven customer satisfaction index.
From strategy to results
Mohammed Adnan Al-Aryan, Assistant General Manager - Non-Financial Risk and Organizational Resilience at the bank, said: "The year 2025 witnessed a pivotal progress in implementing the group's ESG strategy through stronger integration across all business functions and embedding sustainability principles into operations and decision-making. Such achievements realized during the year are not the end of the journey, but an integral part of the group's sustainability strategy extending through 2029."
He added: "At Boubyan, sustainability has evolved beyond regulatory compliance and periodic disclosures to become an intrinsic part of the bank's operating model, which now influences product and service development, enhances customer experience, improves operational efficiency, strengthens risk-management, and supports investment in human capital, ensuring sustainable and tangible impact across all areas of the business." "This approach has contributed to improvement across several performance and sustainability indicators, including a stronger 'S&P ESG' score, driven by enhanced disclosure quality and greater integration across all business areas, alongside ongoing development of measurement and monitoring mechanisms and the identification of future improvement opportunities in line with global best practices", Al-Aryan explained.
He went on to emphasize: "The year's achievements demonstrate the bank's success in translating sustainability objectives into measurable outcomes while strengthening our ability to respond efficiently and resiliently to future developments, reinforcing Boubyan Bank's position as a responsible financial institution that balances growth, innovation, and sustainability."
Responsible growth and sustainable finance
As part of its commitment to reinforcing responsible financing solutions and fostering sustainable development, Boubyan continued to direct its financial capabilities in 2025 towards projects and initiatives with economic, social, and environmental impact. ESG-linked financing reached approximately KD 80 million. These financings were extended to a number of strategic development projects, which are well-aligned with national development priorities and promote sustainable practices, including Kuwait Oil Company's Revegetation Project, in a manner that demonstrated the bank's role in directing finance towards initiatives that promote economic development while preserving natural resources.
These efforts are aligned with Boubyan Bank's direction of embedding sustainability principles across all financing and investment activities, generating long-term positive impact and strengthening the bank's role as an active partner in supporting the transformation towards a more sustainable and resilient economy in the face of challenges.
Environmental commitment and measurable results
On the environmental front, Boubyan continued strengthening its efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations and to improve resource efficiency, in line with its environmental sustainability objectives and commitment to adopting practical solutions that minimize environmental impact across all activities. Accordingly, the bank made significant progress across several key environmental indicators as it reduced Scope 1 stationary combustion emissions by 58.43 percent compared with the previous year and cut Scope 3 upstream transportation emissions within priority categories by 49.63 percent, reflecting the effectiveness of the initiatives and measures implemented by the bank to enhance its environmental performance.
The bank continued implementing responsible resource and waste management practices, whereby it recycled approximately 1,500 kilograms of paper waste, thereby avoiding an estimated 1,739.7 kg Co2e emissions, while recycling 100 percent of electronic waste generated from its operations.
Empowering human capital
Boubyan continued investing in human capital as one of the key drivers of sustainable growth and competitiveness, reflecting its belief that people are the most important driver of organizational success. This directly impacted higher employee satisfaction and productivity, as well as lower employee turnover, demonstrating that a healthy workplace drives stronger and more sustainable organizational performance.
In 2025, the group's total workforce grew by 5.42 percent, while the bank maintained high levels of Kuwaitization, with Kuwaitis accounting for 82.40 percent of the total workforce and 99 percent of new hires, reflecting the bank's success in attracting and developing national talent.
As part of its commitment to diversity and inclusion, women accounted for 24 percent of the total workforce; meanwhile, 100 percent of employees received regular performance reviews and professional development plans. Boubyan continued enhancing the employee experience through integrated initiatives and programs tailored to strengthen engagement, wellbeing, innovation, and continuous learning, while maintaining a flexible and supportive work environment that promotes both professional and personal growth.
All these efforts were crowned with two awards for 2025's "Best Employee Engagement Program" and "Employer of the Year" as part of CIPD MENA Awards, in recognition of the bank's excellent human capital management practices and their alignment with best international practices.
Sustainable investment in the community
As part of its active engagement with community development, Boubyan Bank implemented numerous initiatives, volunteer activities, training programs, and financial education campaigns throughout 2025, focusing on education, health and wellbeing, youth empowerment, entrepreneurship, volunteerism, and environmental and charitable initiatives, which were well-aligned with its role as a responsible financial institution committed to creating long-term value for all stakeholders.
Kuwait Times
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