Research Article, ISSN 2304-2613 (Print); ISSN 2305-8730 (Online); Prefix 10.18034 Copyright © CC-BY-NC 2014, Asian Business Consortium | ABR Page 39 Social Impact and Sustainability of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Banking Sectors: Bangladesh Perspective Niaz Mohammad 1* , Shah Kamal 2 1 Lecturer, Department of Accounting, American International University Bangladesh (AIUB), Dhaka, BANGLADESH 2 Principal Officer, IFIC Bank Limited, Motijheel, Dhaka, BANGLADESH * E-mail for correspondence: mniaz@aiub.edu Received: Mar 01, 2016 Accepted: Mar 10, 2016 ABSTRACT In the recent years Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has witnessed a tremendous increase in awareness and control in the global arena. It is a concept where business organizations apart from their profitability and growth show interest in societal and environmental welfare by taking the responsibility of impact of their activities on stake holders, employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and civil society. However, in developing nations the situation of CSR activities of financial institutions is not so flourishing. The aims of this study are to investigate the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities performed by ten commercial banks in Bangladesh and explore the potential social impacts and sustainability in the future. This study also traced to find the relationship among operational performance by contributing CSR activities. CSR activities affect social attention to the customers and related stakeholders. It shows the relation between after tax net operating income and CSR expenditures by banks using SPSS software. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, CSR reporting, Performance Measurement JEL Classification Code: M14 INTRODUCTION Embedding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an integral part of long term sustainable strategy has now emerged as a growing practice in the domain of business. In 2008, Bangladesh Bank initiated the mainstreaming of CSR campaign in the financial sector of Bangladesh. This initiative has inspired increasing depth and diversity of CSR engagements of banks. Increasing levels of financial involvements in CSR engagements have raised concerns about the proper allocation of CSR budgets, free from insider interests and financial impact on performance. The engagements of banks in terms of direct monetary expenditure, financial inclusion, green banking and CSR reporting have considerably increased. CSR practices by them not only improve their own standards but also revolutionize the socially responsible actions of other businesses. So this paper focuses on how commercial banks are contributing CSR activities on different sectors and their impact on financial performance. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY As many developing countries, banks play a vital role in the Bangladesh economy as the dominant financier for the industrial and commercial activities. Despite the expansion the efficiency of the banking institutions has continued to be dismal. CSR activities are yet to be mainstreamed into corporate practice in the banking sector. Bangladesh Bank already issued a circular to encourage banks and financial institutions to embrace CSR voluntarily in their management strategies, objectives and practices and include their CSR activities in the annual reports as a part of fair disclosures. This study incorporates the CSR activities performed by banks and how this will contribute their performance (profit) in the long run. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY General Objective The main objective of the study is to highlight the existing CSR activities of selected banks and how these activities contribute to the overall performance of banks in the long run. Specific Objectives  To explore the CSR activities performed by selected banks and their reporting.  To identify the impact of a bank‟s performance in terms of profit, customer loyalty and social attention to the customer.