Budapest. As the winner of "The Best Bank for Corporate Social
Responsibility Award" in the MasterCard - Bank of the Year Competition
this year, Citibank Hungary's seniors have decided to live up to
this award and use the funds traditionally spent on year-end customer
gifts in support of underprivileged children by buying them Christmas
gifts. The available funds have been distributed to three non-profit
children's institutions pre-selected by Citibank, based on the
votes from Citibank customers.
Batara Sianturi, Citi Country Officer for Citibank Hungary said,
"We are very proud to have won MasterCard's award for corporate
social responsibility, a category announced for the first time
this year. This distinguished award recognizes our long-term commitment
to financial education and social enterprise building programs.
With this spirit in mind we have launched this Christmas Charity
Program. While this is the time for preparing for the Holiday Season,
it makes us remember those underprivileged children who may not
have a happy holiday as most of us will, so we decided to donate
the funds otherwise spent on client gifts to them."
"We have, of course, informed our customers about our initiative
and invited them to vote for a selected institution of their preference.
It was great to see how many of them joined our initiative and
we distributed the available funds among the NGOs based on the
voting results", added Mr. Sianturi.
Among the three pre-selected institutions Find Your Way Foundation
for Children has received 3.5 million forints (approx. $17,500),
AGOTA Foundation was given 2 million forints (approx. $10,000)
while Slager Angel Foundation has received a donation of 1.5 million
forints (approx. $7,500) based on the voting results. These are
the three NGOs through which Citibank will contribute to underprivileged
children feel the joy of this year's Christmas glamour.
| 
