Corporate Social Responsibility
Committed to a Sustainable Business Model
Sustainability
As a global organization, Temenos is committed to a sustainable business model that enables the group to meet its business objectives while being sympathetic to its social and environmental surroundings.
Our goal is to run a growing, profitable and ethical business that meets the needs of its key stakeholders - clients, employees and shareholders, whilst minimizing any potentially adverse impact of our activities on the communities we serve. The guiding principles of our sustainability strategy affect how we operate on both a global and local basis and are brought together into the four key areas of environment, workplace, community and market.
Environment
Temenos is committed to reducing the group’s impact on the environment. As a technology company, the development and implementation of our software solutions consume minimal amounts of energy and raw materials, however we ensure that we use our resources effectively with the minimum environmental damage. We actively promote the use of video conferencing between our international offices to reduce the volume of air travel undertaken by our employees. We also recycle paper and actively promote the reduction in unnecessary printing.
Workplace
With over 3,500 people from 75 countries, speaking 66 languages Temenos is a testament to diversity and equal opportunity. We work hard to ensure that our employees share the aspirations and values of the Temenos Group in order to deliver value for our customers and shareholders. We pride ourselves in treating our employees fairly and continue to motivate and inspire them through appropriate equity-based incentive programs, which provide both recognition and reward in a way that benefits both the individual and the company. We operate a robust health and safety policy in each of our offices, as well as an equal opportunities policy for all, regardless of race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, disability, age or religious beliefs.
Community
Temenos works with the Global Fund for Children to donate funds in support of educational opportunities and innovative community based organizations working with some of the world’s most marginalized and vulnerable children and young people. In 2009 Temenos employees voted to support projects in India and Sierra Leone. Additionally our Chennai office has created an organized workforce giving programme to support donations to a local rehabilitation association called REMAR who do charitable work among the poor and disadvantaged.
Market
Microfinance and community banking is a growing and profitable area of our business, in which we continue to invest. The business of microfinance is to find innovative ways to deliver low cost financial services to the poor. At Temenos we believe that by enabling access to finance in emerging markets micro entrepreneurs will find the means to finance their business aspirations and create not only employment for themselves but also jobs and wealth for others in their community.
Microfinance is a global phenomenon that has evolved over the past 30 years and which Temenos has been investing in for the past 10, through the creation of T24 for Microfinance and Community Banking (T24 MCB). This is an easy to implement and manage ‘packaged’ version of our T24 core banking system, which to date has enabled more than 100 commercial microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks to reach a vastly wider customer base and provide essential financial services to micro-entrepreneurs and disenfranchised communities in over 50 countries. Having a modern core banking system at the centre of its operation helps MFIs adhere to international banking standards, create new products to offer to their customers and improve the effectiveness of their operations.
Consistent with our own corporate ethos of ethical business and fairness, Temenos has chosen to sponsor an organization that promotes openness, fairness and transparency of pricing in microfinance. Microfinance Transparency www.mftransparency.org was established to promote the welfare of poor micro-entrepreneurs, and to promote the integrity of microfinance as a poverty alleviation practice. It has a vision of a microfinance industry operating with healthy free market conditions where consumers and other stakeholders can make informed decisions. This vision is completely consistent with the Temenos vision for microfinance and is the reason we continue to invest in this sector.