We recognize that financial institutions play a significant role in addressing various environmental and social challenges. The SBI Shinsei Bank Group defines sustainability management as aiming for a virtuous cycle between “long-time contribution to the environment, society, and our customers through our business" and "sustainable growth of our group." The "virtuous cycle" refers to a cycle where our business contribute to improving the sustainability of the environment, society, and our valued customers, with support from our customers and the public, leading to our group's growth, where the growth enables us further to contribute to the society.
We will leverage our distinctive capabilities and expertise as the comprehensive financial group dedicated to forging new value with the transformative power of finance for those customers who are working on resolving various issues or those who face various challenges.
In February 2020, we established the "Sustainable Impact Assessment Department" with the objective to establish a system for evaluating sustainable finance within our bank. We have set a goal of "originating a cumulative total of 5 trillion yen in sustainable finance by fiscal 2030" and are diligently working towards the origination of green loans, social loans, and positive impact finance. Furthermore, we are actively promoting sustainable finance as a group, which includes leases in the healthcare field, the Net Zero Energy House Fund, and solar loans for residential properties. In our pursuit towards achieving a decarbonized society, we believe it is imperative to support companies with high greenhouse gas emissions financially while also assisting in their decarbonization. We have constituted a cross-divisional transition task force to facilitate dialogue with our customers and, in cooperation with regional financial institutions, are working on executing transition linked loans. We also provide non-financial solutions, such as visualizing and reducing customers' CO2 emissions in collaboration with partner companies.
The SBI Shinsei Bank Group is unwavering in its adherence to the "Customer-centric Principle," which permeates all aspects of our operations. We are dedicated to enhancing the accessibility of financial services and fostering financial literacy. We have formulated and published policies and action plans that underscore our commitment to customer-oriented business practices. Our suite of products and services designed to provide customers with opportunities for contributing to the environment and society, or support their challenges, such as "sustainability deposits" where deposited fund are allocated for projects tackling environmental and social issues, preferential interest rate programs for housing loans for environmentally friendly homes (e.g., Net Zero Energy House), housing loans for same-sex partners, credits and leases for solar panels, and auto loans for foreigners residing in Japan.
The SBI Shinsei Bank Group places paramount importance on collaboration with stakeholders as an integral component of our sustainability efforts. Engaging with regional financial institutions, which are central to their communities, is deemed as essential activity. We partake in joint financing for sustainable finance projects that surpass the scale achievable on stand-alone basis and support the promotion of sustainability in regional financial institutions through personnel exchanges and training. By leveraging on each other's strengths and characteristics, we collectively endure to address environmental and social challenges.
We regard our human resources as our most important capital and place utmost emphasis on augmenting their worth. We are committed to cultivate an environment conducive for career development by providing learning opportunities through training and OJT (on-the-job training), personnel rotation and intra-group recruitment and so on. We seek to foster a system and culture that embraces a diverse array of talents, allowing individuals to flourish through their work while choosing a flexible and efficient way of working according to their life stages and life events.
In pursuit of advancing sustainability management, we have established the Group Sustainability Committee, comprising of the CEO and other executive officers. The committee deliberates on the strategic direction of the group and reports on specific accomplishments. The Chief Sustainability Officer, in collaboration with the Senior Sustainability Officer and two additional Sustainability Officers, involves the entire group in our sustainable activities. We seek the board of directors’ approval on significant matters and provide regularly reports, receiving guidance and recommendations to further advance our initiatives.
The founding philosophy of the SBI Group, "public benefit leads to private benefit," is inherently aligned with the concept of sustainability management. As the core banking group of the SBI Group, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group considers solving environmental and social challenges as one of its paramount management imperative and actively promotes sustainability management as a unified group. By projecting our vison decades into the future and earnestly engaging with stakeholders, we strive to achieve a virtuous cycle between “long-time contribution to the environment, society, and customers through our business" and "sustainable growth of our group," thereby becoming a comprehensive financial group that is trusted, needed, and growing, and enhancing sustainable corporate value.
August 2024
Chief Sustainability Officer
Executive Officer, Head of Group Overseas Business Division
In charge of Group Corporate Planning
Yasuhiro Fujiki
