Provident Hungary wins Global Sustainability Leadership Awards

Provident Pénzügyi Zrt received the „Global Sustainability Leadership” award, the international jury recognised Botond Szirmák, Country Manager of Provident, also in the individual category at the World Sustainability Congress on 11-12th October in Dubai.

The World Sustainability Congress is an international professional organisation that gathers, shares and acknowledges sustainability best practices developed in business, non-profit and governmental sectors around the world. The annual Congress was hosted by Dubai this year with the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, as main patron. For several years, the presentations and workshops of the Congress have been building bridges among the different business cultures of the Western and Eastern hemisphere – dozens of nations are represented from the United States of America through Germany and the United Kingdom to Malaysia. The founder of the conference and the award is Dr. R. L. Bhatia, an Indian-born Human Resources Professional, who supports the World CSR Congress with his decades-long experience as international advisor and with his network of partners.

Provident was rewarded for its successful, detailed and practical sustainability programme that has been operating for years. The programme treats the Company’s social impacts as priority with special attention to responsible lending, and has developed effective means of sustainability in its all aspects: social investments, volunteerism, stakeholder dialogues, environment protection, transparency. Botond Szirmák, the Country Manager of Provident Hungary, received the “CEO of the Year” award for exemplary and exceptionally high-impact representation of sustainability principles both inside and outside the Company.

The awards were handed to dr Zsuzsanna Jánosy and András Kőszegi, managers of the BrandTrend branding consultancy, representing Hungary as members of the advisory board of the event.

Botond Szirmák, Country manager of Provident: “A few years ago nine out of ten people – even in a corporate environment – were uncertain of what sustainability means, even though it directly affects business results. The main goal of a sustainability programme is to create value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees, shareholders and society as a whole, by responsibly managing social, business and environmental risks related to the Company’s operations. I’m glad that our results in this field in Hungary have won international recognition and we are all really proud of these awards with my colleagues.”

Dr Zsuzsanna Jánosy and András Kőszegi , CEOs of BrandTrend: “It was uplifting to take sustainability awards for a Hungarian company at an international event. In the past few years we’ve experienced that Hungary gradually catches up with the global forefront: These awards prove that Hungarian businesses are capable of not only learning but also developing and sharing best practices that are competitive in the international environment.”

Corporate Social Responsibility has a decade-long history at Provident Pénzügyi Zrt. Apart from the initiatives aimed at responsible lending, Provident’s Family Treasure programme has provided up-to-date economic, financial and job market skills to almost 30,000 households through hundreds of education specialists. “Provident Guardian Angels” have supported medical, educational and social institutions with over 70,000 hours of voluntary work at a hundred locations.

About Provident Pénzügyi Zrt:

Provident Pénzügyi Zrt – five times listed as Hungarian Superbrands – has been one of the key participants in the personal loans market in Hungary for 15 years. The company of British background has 130 years experience in the business. Its parent company, International Personal Finance (IPF), listed on the London stock exchange, serves 2,4 million customers in 11 countries. With its 3000 employees, Provident is one of the largest employers in Hungary. It has twice won the Best Employer of Hungary Award (Aon Hewitt 2012, 2014) and it was chosen the sixth best employer in the Central European region. Provident was among the 32 best employers in the world in 2013 (Great Workplace Award of the Gallup Institute), and with this it became the first Hungarian participant in the history of the award. Provident serves over 300,000 customers with over 90% customer satisfaction rate. Customers represent the entire creditworthy population. Provident won the Excellence in Customer Service Award in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The company pursues a wide range of CSR activities. In the past few years, Provident employees spent 70,000 hours helping educational and social institutions all over the country as volunteers. Additionally, Provident also runs an economic and financial educational programme (www.csaladikassza.hu).