Westpac, the Australian banking group, has emerged as a world leader in corporate social responsibility. The latest annual corporate responsibility index by Business in the Community, the good corporate citizenship advocate, put Westpac at the head of nearly 150 companies, taken from the FTSE 350 and Dow Jones sustainability indices.

National Grid Transco, the networks group, and BT, the telecoms operator, were ranked second and third respectively. The index aims to benchmark practices. It looks at whether a company has assigned responsibility for good social behaviour at a senior level, and built responsible practices into its mainstream processes.