Sustainable banking is a value system, which
ensures that a bank's commercial activities do not only benefit its staff and
shareholders, but also its customers and the wider economy, while at the same
time prevent or at least minimize any undue effects on the society and natural
environment. Sustainable banking has many labels: corporate social
responsibility, corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, environmental
and social governance.
In Nigeria, the Bankers' committee, which the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NDIC, and all the banks in the country are
members, pledged to embrace the concept of sustainable banking and went ahead
to develop a set of principles called Nigeria Sustainable Banking
Principles (NSBP), which all members are required to subscribe to and
implement.