The award is given by the magazine and website ‘Ethical Boardroom’ and recognizes the outstanding leadership abilities of European corporate boards that have succeeded in raising the bar, ensuring that strong corporate governance does indeed play an important role in protecting and maximizing the long-term value of all stakeholders.

The awards are a key element of the journal’s ongoing effort to upgrade corporate governance criteria worldwide. According to the organizers, “high-level corporate governance contributes to the long-term performance of businesses. Businesses need to improve their governance practices and inform us when they decide to demonstrate their positive impact on the economy and the wider society of their country. ”

In 2018, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) updated the UK Corporate Governance Code and observed that too many large listed companies had prioritized ‘strict compliance’, without however, improving or enhancing corporate culture and diversity or seriously considering the views of shareholders and the public. The Financial Reporting Council encouraged companies to focus more on the results of the Code’s 2020 implementation, “in particular on the effectiveness and decision-making of the Board, and how this has led to lasting benefits for shareholders and stakeholders in general. ”

Bank of Cyprus said the award is a testament to its continuous efforts to reshape the future of the Cyprus banking environment through a sustainable growth based on best international standards and practices of good governance.

Further to BoC’s latest successes and awards won on a national level, it now becomes the first Cypriot organization to win the best banking governance on a European level.

“The Bank of Cyprus is taking solid strides in operating in a world class corporate governance environment which enables risk to be assessed and managed in the most effective manner. The tone from the top is crystal clear and reaffirms commitment to a real zero-tolerance towards any form of non-compliance with policies, regulations or misbehaviours.  The nurturing of a culture and a mindset that goes beyond the basic standards of risk management but focuses on ethical behaviour, is the core value of existence of the new Bank of Cyprus,” it said.

The new digitized future of the bank aims not only in a better-quality customer engagement and service, but above all to strengthen the trust that it has built with them, its shareholders and regulators through an even more robust corporate governance framework, it concluded.

Photo from left, Director of Compliance/Marios Skandalis, Chairman/Efstratios-Georgios (Takis) Arapoglou, CEO/Panicos Nicolaou.

Source: In-Cyprus