Paul Harris - CEO, FirstRand Limited

This year marks the 6th year in which the FirstRand Group has disclosed non financial performance information in sustainability reports to its stakeholders. FirstRand’s 2009 annual report also integrates financial and non financial performance disclosures more extensively than we have done before. This demonstrates our continually evolving approach to managing the interfaces between the financial and non financial factors underpinning our business success and the welfare of our stakeholders.

At FirstRand we view sustainable development and sustainable profit growth as complementary objectives and we see the interests of all of the Group’s stakeholders as coinciding in the long run. The Group’s two principal drivers for sustainable business practice are to ensure sustainable profit growth and to instil a sense of responsibility toward future generations among our stakeholders in the process. FirstRand’s growth potential is founded on the growth themes of the South African economy, namely favourable macroeconomic fundamentals, sound institutions for managing the economy, infrastructure spending, a fast growing black middle class and black economic empowerment (BEE). A reciprocal relationship exists between these fundamentals and the level of support that the Group’s activities provide for them.