Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

OceanFirst Financial Corp. settled with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in September 2024 for $15 million to resolve allegations of discriminatory lending practices (redlining) from 2018-2022.

This included a commitment to add at least $14 million to a loan subsidy fund for residents in majority-Black, Hispanic, and Asian neighborhoods, and to spend $700,000 on advertising, outreach, consumer financial education, and credit counseling in those areas. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) downgraded OceanFirst's Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating from "satisfactory" to "needs to improve" for the 2018-2020 period due to evidence of discriminatory practices. However, the bank received an "outstanding" CRA rating for the 2021-2023 period, with the OCC's most recent review not uncovering any discriminatory practices. Between 2020 and June 2024, the bank's loans and investments in NeighborFirst programs, community development, small business lending, and Home Buyer Dream programs totaled approximately $629.01 million, representing about 4.73% of its $13.3 billion in assets. The bank agreed to spend $700,000 on advertising, outreach, consumer financial education, and credit counseling in predominantly Black, Hispanic, and Asian neighborhoods. While the bank's lending levels were noted to reflect excellent responsiveness and geographic distribution in the New York City-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area, it was also cited in 2021 for needing to improve services in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Honest & Fair Business

OceanFirst Bank entered into settlement agreements with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2024.

This resolved claims of violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act due to alleged discriminatory lending practices from 2018 through at least 2022. The settlement included a commitment of at least $14 million for a mortgage loan subsidy fund, $400,000 for community partnerships, and $700,000 for targeted marketing, advertising, and outreach programs, totaling $15.1 million.

Kind to Animals

OceanFirst Financial Corp. is a bank holding company.

and its core business operations do not involve activities related to animal products, animal testing, or animal agriculture. Therefore, KPIs such as cruelty-free certification, alternative testing usage, humane certifications for operations, ethical input substitution, supplier audits for animal welfare, cage-free sourcing, animal testing policy and volume, innovation investment in animal-free technologies, animal agriculture ethics, animal-free R&D collaboration, and public policy engagement on animal welfare are not applicable to its business model. CrueltyFreeInvesting.org lists OceanFirst Financial Corp. as having "No Animal Exploitation." The OceanFirst Foundation made grants of $1,000 for animal birth control and $5,000 to the Humane Society of Ocean City Inc. in 2019, but these philanthropic contributions do not provide measurable biodiversity impact or species recovery metrics required by the wildlife conservation impact KPI, which is also not applicable to the company's core business model.

No War, No Weapons

OceanFirst Financial Corp. is a bank holding company primarily engaged in community banking services, including loans and investments.

The provided ESG reports from 2021 and 2023 explicitly state that no data is presented regarding arms contracts or metrics directly related to arms sales. , The company's core business does not involve defense or arms-related activities.

Planet-Friendly Business

OceanFirst Financial Corp. (OCFC.US) does not provide sufficient quantitative data to assess its performance against the Planet-Friendly Business ethical value. The company's 2023 ESG Report Summary explicitly states that data for total Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, renewable energy percentage, water use per revenue, waste diversion rate, green building certifications, and other key environmental metrics are not disclosed.

Information regarding science-based targets, climate-positive initiatives, supply chain climate transparency, biodiversity efforts, environmental compliance violations, net-zero targets, TCFD alignment, and climate scenario analysis is also not available.

Safe & Smart Tech

OceanFirst Financial Corp. has reported no material data incidents.

The company implements annual employee security awareness training, which includes simulated phishing assessments. It uses 256-bit encryption for communication between user browsers and servers for online banking and mobile apps. The company employs multi-factor authentication for new logins or unrecognized devices, and has vulnerability and patch management programs in place. Security testing includes penetration tests, cybersecurity risk assessments, and external audits. The company states compliance with federal law regarding privacy. Customers can limit sharing of their creditworthiness information with affiliates, and limit marketing from affiliates and non-affiliates, with new customers having a 30-day window to set these preferences.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

The provided ESG reports from OceanFirst Financial Corp. (2021 and 2023) do not contain specific quantitative data points for any of the KPIs under the 'Zero Waste & Sustainable Products' ethical value.

While the reports mention digital transformation and digital banking initiatives that are presented as environmentally beneficial due to reduced paper consumption, they do not provide measurable outcomes such as a percentage reduction in paper waste, a specific number of waste reduction initiatives with results, or any other quantifiable data related to waste diversion, product recyclability, packaging, or circular economy principles. Therefore, no KPIs can be scored based on the evidence provided.