Ethisphere Announces Fifth Third Bank as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies

Recognition honors companies who understand the importance of leading, making hard, values-based decisions, and their overall commitment to integrity

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fifth Third Bank, National Association (Nasdaq: FITB) has been recognized by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standard of ethical business practices, as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Today’s announcement marks the second time Fifth Third has been recognized by Ethisphere in the “banks” category. In 2021, 135 honorees were recognized spanning 22 counties and 47 industries.

Fifth Third is a top ten U.S. regional bank whose vision is to be the one bank that people most value and trust. The Company is committed to doing the right thing in order to create a great customer experience, an engaging workplace and healthy, vibrant communities. In addition, the Bank strives to be a top quartile performer in environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership and reporting. Fifth Third’s ESG Report is accessible at a dedicated ESG site, ir.53.com/esg.

“Fifth Third strives to do well by doing good,” said Chairman and CEO Greg Carmichael. “We are deeply committed to the success and well-being of our customers, employees, communities and shareholders, especially during today’s challenging times. We’re proud to have been a leader in offering hardship relief programs through the pandemic. We’ve made a new, three-year, $2.8 billion commitment to accelerate racial equality, and we surpassed the $32 billion Community Commitment that we announced in 2016. We also continued our environmental sustainability leadership by achieving carbon neutrality in 2020. All of this said and done, we know there’s much work to do and we are steadfast in our resolve to continue to be a good corporate citizen for the betterment of all.”

“While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies lead – above all other institutions – on earning the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity,” said Ethisphere CEO, Timothy Erblich. “The World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at Fifth Third for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation.”

Ethics & Performance

According to Ethisphere’s Ethics Index, the publicly listed 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees outperformed a comparable index of large cap companies by 7.1 percentage points from January 2016 to January 2021.

Methodology & Scoring

Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

This year, the process was streamlined and question set expanded to gauge how applicants are adapting and responding to the global health pandemic, environmental, social, and governance factors, safety, equity, and inclusion and social justice.

Honorees

The full list of the 2021 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.

About Fifth Third Bank

Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, National Association, a federally chartered institution. As of Dec. 31, 2020, Fifth Third had $205 billion in assets and operated 1,134 full-service banking centers and 2,397 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 52,000 fee-free ATMs across the United States. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Wealth & Asset Management. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of Dec. 31, 2020, had $434 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $54 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Deposit and Credit products are offered by Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Member FDIC.

About the Ethisphere Institute

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). More information about Ethisphere can be found at: https://ethisphere.com.