Bankinter Consumer Finance and Pontificia Comillas University hold the Fifth Business Ethics Research Awards

The Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at the Pontificia Comillas University (Comillas ICADE) Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences and Bankinter Consumer Finance, a consumer subsidiary of the Bankinter Group, presented the Fifth Business Ethics Research Awards today. The first prize went to Clara Gallego Sosa, Milagros Gutiérrez Fernández and Yakira Fernández Torres, of the University of Extremadura, for their paper “ Commitment to sustainability in the large European banking sector and the relationship with gender diversity in management - a perspective from the 2030 Agenda”. The jury was impressed by its scientific quality and subject, examining key aspects related to sustainability, the sustainable development goals, the banking sector and diversity. The jury also praised its international approach, by analysing 50 European banks, and innovation in examining the role of female managers in relation to progress with the various pillars of the SDGs.

The second prize went to Gloria Pineda Rodriguez-Pina, a student at the Pontificia Comillas University, for her work“ Energy communities as a potential solution to energy poverty in rural Spain”. Third place was awarded to a team of researchers comprising María José Manjón Rodríguez and Amparo Merino de Diego from the Pontificia Comillas University and Iain Cairns from the University of Strathclyde, for their work“ Tackling energy poverty through social intrapreneurship in large-scale energy companies”. Fourth place went to Felipe Sánchez Gunturiz, a student at Colombia's Universidad Nacional, for “Stop selling smoke and mirrors: are corporate social responsibility reports a significant step in a company's sustainable development?”.

Five years recognising research in business ethics

This well established competition is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and attracted over 250 research entries from international authors. The winners were announced at the traditional official awards ceremony, which was held at Bankinter's iconic building on Madrid's Paseo de la Castellana.

The event was attended by the nominees and the jury, whose chairman Alfonso Saez Alonso-Muñumer, a Director and CEO of Bankinter Consumer Finance, said “We have been firmly committed to good corporate governance for many years. These Awards are now in their fifth year and confirm that initiatives to promote ethics in the business world are one of our priorities”.

 José Luis Fernández, director of the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics, said “this well established award is highly regarded in the academic community. It stimulates conceptual innovation and recognises intellectual efforts to improve the ethical dimension of business management”. He attached particular importance to Bankinter Consumer Finance's commitment to issues that look to the long term and signal a meta-economic approach to involvement with society, going beyond the search for financial returns, necessary though that is. “This is an example of inter-institutional collaboration – a bank and a university working together - in line with SDG 17. It is an appropriate way to successfully tackle some of the challenges we are facing and have no choice but to confront”, he said.

This fifth edition attracted works by authors from Spain, Portugal, Ireland and, as in previous years, other countries, showing how its geographic reach is expanding as interest in this initiative spreads.

The jury for the fifth edition comprised Alfonso María Saez Alonso-Muñumer, CEO of Bankinter Consumer Finance, who acted as the chairman; Raquel Azcárraga, head of Sustainability at Bankinter; Almudena Rodríguez Beloso, head of Institutional and Corporate Relations at Valora (Sustainability and Innovation); Inés Gomis Bertrand, managing partner at Temple Asesores; Juan Benavides Delgado, professor in the Faculty of Information Sciences at Madrid's Complutense University; Fernando Velasco Fernández, professor at the Rey Juan Carlos University and director of its Intelligence Services and Democratic Systems Chair; Javier Fuertes López, professor of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Pontificia Comillas University and chair of the Unijes Group of Professional Ethics; Diana Loyola Chávez, professor at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the Pontificia Comillas University; Maria Fernanda Guevara Riera, professor at La Rioja International University, who directed and moderated the jury's deliberations. All of them have been responsible for selecting the first and second prize winners.

José Luis Fernández Fernández, director of the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at Pontificia Comillas University, who directed and moderated the jury's deliberations; and Javier Camacho Ibáñez, managing director of the company Sostenibilidad Ética, who acted as the secretary of the jury.

Working together for corporate ethics in the business world

The Business Ethics Research Awards were set up in November 2017 through the signature of a collaboration agreement between the Economic and Business Ethics Chair at Pontificia Comillas University and Bankinter Consumer Finance. The Awards aim to promote and foster corporate ethics in the business world.

From the prespective of both Bankinter Consumer Finance and those responsible for the Chair, this initiative's success and its being well received depends on the search for synergies between the academic sphere and private sector businesses.

 The Sixth Edition of the Awards will be organised once its terms and conditions have been refined based on the experience of the previous five rounds. This will undoubtedly result in even greater impact among the research community and in the specialist academic field of business ethics and related areas.

About Bankinter Consumer Finance

Bankinter Group's, 100% owned, consumer finance subsidiary is one of the financial institutions with the highest growth in the Spanish banking sector in recent years, as a result of following Bankinter's prudent credit risk policy. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the company had a customer base of 1.9 million, an increase of 7% over the previous year. The loan book amounts to 3.808 billion euros, having grown at an annual rate of 31% despite the difficult economic conditions.

About the Comillas ICADE Chair of Economic and Business Ethics

The Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of Pontificia Comillas University (Comillas ICADE) is a forum for considering, debating and researching issues related to business ethics, social responsibility and corporate citizenship. It provides a meeting point for academics, businesspeople, managers and others interested in promoting ethical leadership in organisations in the context of a global economy.