OUR RESPONSIBLE SERVICES

Our Responsible Services

Bank of Cyprus delivers on its strategic objectives to become a more resilient, safe and sustainable institution which supports continuously the development of the Cyprus economy and delivers stakeholder value through responsible operations, sustainable products and innovative services.

Responsible Products

In accordance with its risk appetite and the customers’ money laundering and terrorist financing risk, the Bank prohibits the establishment of a business relationship with high-risk industries in case these are not regulated/registered by a European Economic Area (EEA) country or a third equivalent country.

Environmental and Social Policies for Lending

We are committed to implement certain policies and procedures focusing on environmental and social issues in its lending and insurance activities by specific criteria

Customer Experience

We ensure that customers receive timely, professional and personalised service. We use several tools to monitor the quality of the customer services, carrying out various surveys involving –inter alia– a rolling poll (on a 48-week per year basis), focus groups, telephone interviews, targeted surveys, qualitative research and mystery shopping. Findings indicate that the quality of our staff and of the Customer Service provided are key drivers of our Bank’s advantage compared to its competition.

Customer Complaints

We guarantee that complaints are resolved in a proper and timely manner. We also handle and monitor complaints, facilitating prompt complaint resolutions, recommending remedial actions that derive from the complaint root cause analysis and facilitate the proper implementation of these actions.

Paperless Services and E-Statements

Following the best practices in the sector, we urge our clients to replace paper account statements with electronic statements sent via email. We provide incentives to customers to switch to digital and other paperless services via online services that are either cheaper than physical services or free of charge.

Digital Channels

We offer a variety of safe digital channels to our clients so that they can conduct most of their transactions without visiting a branch. Day-to-day transactions can be conducted round the clock via 1bank (internet banking/mobile banking), Quick Pay app, the ATM machines and the applications Apple Pay: for iOS devices and BOC Wallet: for Android devices

Data Protection

The security, protection and privacy of personal data is important to us. We have a Data Protection Policy that outlines the principles of data privacy for our customers, suppliers, business partners and employees. We safeguard these principles by following relevant implementation and monitoring of procedures. We sustain the clients’ ability to have better control of their personal data and to exercise their rights as per the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Supply Chain

We aim to develop healthy and mutually beneficial business relationships with our vendors and business partners. We act with transparency, integrity, accountability focusing on fair competition throughout the procurement process. We also aim to establish mutually beneficial strategic partnerships and therefore we follow certain principles and implement an established process for vendor management and sourcing. Within this robust framework, we successfully create value for all vendors, especially local (Cypriot) vendors.

Responsible Communication and Marketing

We comply with the principles/codes of communications of various external bodies and internal departments in order to be responsible about our communication activities to the benefit of our customers and society in general. We maintain the Advertisements’ Approval Procedure and the Internal Lobbying Procedure with regards to the transparency of participation in public policy making and lobbying activities. All clients receive formal information related to terms, conditions and charges for every and any product they buy. Therefore, we increase transparency and trust, enhance understanding of products and services, support consumer rights, address expectations and promote good and fair banking practices.

More information can be found in the Corporate Sustainability Report 2020, “Our Responsible Services” chapter