Foundation Topics

Our culture is rooted in our Purpose ‘Helping you thrive’ and brought to life by our four values of ‘Customer First’, ‘Better Together’, ‘Take Ownership’ and ‘Be Decisive’, co-created with colleagues in 2023.

Our Culture Action Plan 2023/24 reflects planned strategic deliverables that will accelerate culture change and is aligned to our purpose and values.

The delivery of this plan is further driven by culture leader led enabler groups to tackle challenging impediments and promote shared accountability for culture across the Group.

Progress against this plan is measured on an ongoing basis through our Culture Embedding Index and Engagement Index in our Open View colleague surveys. In addition, specific metrics associated with each of our values are included in a Culture Transformation Dashboard which is reported to Board level.

Business ethics represents a critical foundation of our business and trusted relationship with our clients and customers, which needs to be safeguarded at all times.

For this reason, we set out high standards when dealing with others, both within and outside Group and our personal financial dealings in our Code of Conduct.

The code is supported by the Group’s suite of responsible business policies such as our Speak Up policy and our Market Integrity policy. All colleagues complete annual mandatory training and assessment on all of these aspects.

We recognise our role in supporting the local communities where our customers live and work, and it is an important part of our sustainable business activity. We focus on providing financial support to local not-for-profit and community groups, and social enterprises who are working to address social issues and make a lasting change in their communities.

In 2024 we provided support to a range of local initiatives aiming to foster inclusion and build capability amongst underserved groups across the island of Ireland. Our Community Fund provided €500,000 in strategic grants to 24 organisations with grant levels ranging from €10,000 to €80,000, and for the first time included four two-year grants. The introduction of multi-year grants was in direct response to the needs of the sector and will enable organisations to undertake far more complex and challenging projects. We focus on helping the most marginalised in society who are typically most impacted by the challenges in our society.

We also delivered eight Arts projects funded from our €100,000 Arts Fund delivered in partnership with Business to Arts. The programmes challenged societal perceptions and fostered social inclusion, increasing vitality of vulnerable groups through participation in the arts. It had a positive impact on vulnerable groups, with over 2,000 participants across eight counties and 80 artists supported through paid employment and further opportunities for professional development and exhibition of their work.

Protecting the integrity of the financial system from financial crime risks including money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption is of paramount importance to the Group.

We are committed to playing our part in safeguarding the financial systems and our customers from the impact of financial crime. The Group’s Financial Crime Framework, including our policies and procedures support this objective.

All colleagues complete mandatory training and assessment annually so that the Group’s policies and procedures are embedded in operational activities.

It is important that supply partners who deliver goods and services for the Group, share our values and ambition to create a sustainable future.

For this reason, we continue to review and update our Code of Supplier Responsibility that applies to all of our suppliers.

This sets out the responsible business practices we expect of our suppliers. This Code is supported by our Group Procurement and Group Environmental policies.

We aim to ensure the safety of our colleagues and customers at all times by carefully planning our operations, identifying potential hazards and managing the associated risks at every stage.

Implementation of the Group’s Health and Safety policy which is fully supported by the Senior Leadership Team helps with this objective.

Key components of our safety management systems are property specific risk assessments, an extensive auditing programme, as well as a robust health and safety training plan which includes role specific training and two mandatory training courses for all colleagues.

Bank of Ireland’s Safety Management system is fully accredited to ISO 45001 which is the most reputable and recognised standard for health and safety management systems internationally.

This was achieved following an in-depth surveillance audit by our specialist 3rd party auditing company. We were awarded the ISO standard again in 2024 without any non-conformances or opportunities for improvements identified.

We strive to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking does not support our supply chain or our businesses. This objective is explicit in our relevant policies and our approach to human rights.

In December 2024, the Group’s first Human Rights policy was approved by the Board. The purpose of this policy is to provide information about our commitments and efforts to respect human rights in all our business activities and relationships. The policy describes the governance structure and related policies supporting the commitments. We are committed to upholding and promoting human rights in all areas of our operations. We will provide annual mandatory training from 2025 for employees and business partners to promote understanding of human rights issues and the Group’s Human Rights policy

View Our Group’s Human Rights policy

We do not operate within any countries or geographic areas that are at significant risk of incidents of forced labour, compulsory labour or child labour. Along with our compliance with all applicable local labour laws and regulations for the areas in which we operate, the Group does not recognise any operations to be at significant risk of incidents of forced labour or child labour.

We operate in an industry where regulation protects workers against such severe human rights violations. While we recognises human rights risks associated with modern slavery, the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2024 outlines our actions to prevent human rights abuses, and this is reflected in our commitments under the UNPRB and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI).

We continue to invest in our cyber capability across people, process and technology.

We apply a ‘security by design’ approach to business and technology-driven change.

We recognise the importance of a strong security culture within the Group, with annual mandatory web-based training for all colleagues coupled with a well-established and growing Cyber Community of Practice.

The ‘Security Zone’ page on the Group website supports customer security awareness, including fraud alerts and information on how to report suspicious online activity, emails or phone calls.

Our customers, clients and colleagues trust us with their data, including giving them the control they need while being fully committed to keeping their information private.

Our Data Privacy Notices explain how we hold and use personal information and outline people’s rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how they can exercise those rights.