Old National Bank Named as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute for the 4th Consecutive Year

EVANSVILLE, Ind., March 9, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today the Ethisphere Institute recognized Old National Bank ONB as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company^® for the fourth consecutive year. Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices.

The World's Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

Being a four-year honoree underscores Old National's commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders including clients, employees, suppliers, regulators and investors. Old National is one of only five companies in the Banking sector honored this year.

"Maintaining transparency and ethical practices is something Old National holds in the highest regard," said Bob Jones, Old National Bank President & CEO. "The fact that we have been recognized as a World's Most Ethical Company for four consecutive years is truly a testament to the hard work of our associates and their commitment to our company and the clients we serve."

"The World's Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World's Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing," said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer Timothy Erblich. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Old National Bank for this extraordinary achievement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization'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. The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%).

The full list of the 2015 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

Senior executives of honorees contribute high-level insights and best practices to the well-regarded World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing (download Volume 2 here). Additional insights gleaned from the World's Most Ethical Companies will be released in a series of whitepapers and infographics over the coming months (download the 2014 Insights). Organizations interested in how they compare to the World's Most Ethical Companies are invited to learn more about benchmarking services.

About Old National

Old National Bancorp ONB is the largest financial services holding company headquartered in Indiana and, with $11.6 billion in assets, ranks among the top 100 banking companies in the U.S. Since its founding in Evansville in 1834, Old National has focused on community banking by building long-term, highly valued partnerships with clients. Today, Old National's footprint includes Indiana, Western Kentucky and Louisville, Southern Illinois and Central and Western Michigan. In addition to providing extensive services in retail and commercial banking, wealth management, investments and brokerage, Old National also owns Old National Insurance, one of the 100 largest brokers in the U.S. For more information and financial data, please visit Investor Relations at oldnational.com.

About the Ethisphere Institute

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies^® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com.