Contribution Activities(Poverty & Inequality)

SMBC Group Rising Fund is a reserve fund that is deducted monthly from the salaries of volunteer executives and employees. As of March 2023, approximately 7,700 people had joined the program, and the company has also contributed a portion of the money to the fund.
This fund was operated solely by the bank until FY2020, but from FY2021, it has been expanded to include Group companies in order to contribute to solving increasingly complex social issues by creating a social impact. In selecting donation recipients, we have introduced a system of public solicitation, which includes document screening, presentations by organizations, and voting by officers and employees, resulting in the donation of approximately 15 million yen in FY2022.

SMBC Consumer Finance introduced the "Yakusoku no Mori” (yakusoku meaning promise in Japanese) in 2007 as a system that allows employees to actively participate in social contribution by choosing their own donation recipients and monthly donation amounts, which are deducted from their salaries. Donation recipients can be selected from child welfare facility subsidy projects for the future of children (Zenkoku Jido Yougo Shisetsu Kyogikai), child self-reliance support projects (Zenkoku Jiritsu Enjo Home Kyogikai), and hearing dog training projects (Japan Hearing Dogs for Deaf People). The company also adopts a matching gift system, where it contributes additional funds on top of the employees' donation amounts.

SMBC Nikko Securities has been holding in-house sales events of Fairtrade products with the cooperation of outside organizations since FY2022. By addressing the issue of poverty disparity through the purchase of Fairtrade products, we are supporting the development of a fair society.

In 1990, the SMBC Foundation for International Cooperation was established for the purpose of developing capable individuals and facilitating intercultural exchange that could contribute to economic growth in the Asian region. Since its outset, the Foundation has been providing seven or eight Asian graduate students with an opportunity to study at Japanese universities via a scholarship every year. Also, the Foundation provides financial support to research institutions and researchers that are involved in activities for economic growth in developing countries.

SMBC Trust Bank donates a portion of sales from beverage vending machines (10 yen per drink) located in the Okinawa Office to the School Meals Program* operated by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
*The United Nations WFP School Meals Program has provided school meals in developing countries for more than 40 years. A donation of 30 yen provides a day's worth of meals, and providing these meals improves the nutritional status of children. In addition, parents can send their children to school because they can eat free meals there, which also leads to better learning opportunities for children.

Since fiscal 2022, SMBC Nikko Securities has held in-house sales meetings for fair trade products in cooperation with outside organizations. We support the creation of a just society by addressing poverty inequality through the purchase of fair-trade products.