U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States, recently announced that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company. This marks the third consecutive year U.S. Bank has earned this recognition.

“It is truly an honor to be named a World’s Most Ethical Company for the third consecutive year,” said Richard Davis, chairman and chief executive officer of U.S. Bank. “As a financial institution, we understand the importance of building and maintaining trust with our customers, communities, and shareholders. And, we are very proud of how the U.S. Bank team strives to be the most trusted choice and how their efforts impact the lives of our customers. I congratulate all of our employees and thank them for their commitment to the highest level of ethics and integrity.”

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes organizations that understand their role in society to influence and drive positive change, consider the impact of their actions on their employees, investors, customers and other key stakeholders, and use their values and culture as an underpinning to the decisions they make every day.

“We help customers build financially secure futures every day — and those relationships are built on trust,” said Andy Cecere, president and chief operating officer for U.S. Bank. “We know we are successful in earning that trust when we collaborate, act responsibly, do the right thing and treat everyone with respect and dignity. We are proud to be on Ethisphere’s list because it validates our employees’ commitment to our customers and our communities.”

U.S. Bank is again the largest U.S.-based bank being honored by the Ethisphere Institute. According to a press release, being an honoree underscores U.S. Bank’s commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value creation for key stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, regulators and investors.

The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s ethics quotient framework which offers a quantitative way to assess a company’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.

According to a press release, scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program, corporate citizenship and responsibility, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, innovation and reputation.