Agri-banker Rabobank has held on to its title as Europe’s most sustainable bank and continues to be the second most sustainable bank worldwide.

The bank achieved a sustainability score of 80 per cent in a performance report comparison by Swiss Asset Management, a leading performance assessment organisation.

It rated just behind the Australian Westpac Banking Corporation, which scored 84 per cent.

The rating is based on scores in economic, environmental and social categories - the same criteria applied to SAM’s review of companies on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index list.

As Rabobank does not feature on this list, it commissions SAM to conduct the same review twice a year.

Hans ten Cate, a member of the executive board of the Rabobank Group, said: “Our ambition is to continue to hold a leading position in the field of corporate social responsibility in the future. With a view to realising this objective, we are currently further integrating CSR into our core financial activities and setting related concrete targets.”