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Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.
Added to
KLD's Domini 400 Social Index
BOSTON,
MA - September 01, 2004 - KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.,
an independent investment research firm, announced today
that Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. (SOV) has been added to KLD's
Domini 400 SocialSM Index.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. is headquartered in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., through its subsidiary Sovereign Bank, provides retail banking services and financial services including, corporate banking, wealth management, trust services, and insurance services. The company has operations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Massachusetts.
Reasons KLD added the company to the Domini 400 Social Index
- Sovereign Bancorp focuses its lending practices on improving the communities where it is located. The company was named a preferred Small Business Administration loan leader in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. In addition, the company has a micro-lending program that provides loans ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to entrepreneurs.
- The company supports affordable housing through the provision of loans to low-to-moderate-income borrowers and low-income housing tax credits. Such investments, when used along with conventional debt financing, allow developers to offer affordable rents in rental housing properties.
- Sovereign Bank has a policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation and provides same-sex domestic partner benefits to qualified partners.
- Jay Sidhu, who is Asian American, is chief executive officer, chair and president of Sovereign Bancorp.
About the KLD Family of Indexes
KLD’s
family of social, environmental and sustainability indexes
include: the Domini 400SM Social Index (DS 400 Index), launched
in 1990, is the established benchmark for measuring the
impact of social screening on financial performance; the
KLD Catholic Values 400SM
Index, launched in 1998, is modeled on KLD's DS 400; the
KLD Broad Market SocialSM
Index (KLD BMS Index), launched in 2001, is the screened
subset of the Russell 3000® Index; the
KLD Large Cap SocialSM
Index (KLD LCS Index), launched in 2001, is the screened
subset of the Russell 1000® Index; the
KLD NASDAQ Social Index
(KLD NS Index), launched in 2002, is modeled on the NASDAQ
Composite Index; the KLD Select SocialSM
Index, launched in 2004, is the first US index maximizing
sustainability factors.
About KLD Research & Analytics,
Inc.
KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is an independent investment
research firm providing investment management tools used
by professionals to serve clients requiring investment
strategies based on social and environmental responsibility.
KLD products and services, including Socrates (a web-based,
company research tool) are used for screening, compliance
and asset gathering.
For more information about KLD or its family of Indexes, please see our
website (www.kld.com)
or contact Karen Agredo by phone (617.426.5270) or via
e-mail (kagredo@kld.com).
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