Message by Group CSuO

Leveraging the strengths of a global financial group, we will proactively address social issues with our partners.

The social issues faced by the world have become increasingly diverse and severe in recent years, and the mindset of stakeholders is steadily changing. Amid growing expectations toward companies to proactively and concretely contribute to solving social issues, in our Medium-Term Management Plan that began in April 2023, SMBC Group set forth “Create Social Value” as one pillar of our management and established “Environment,” “DE&I/Human Rights,” “Poverty & Inequality,” “Declining Birthrate & Aging Population,” and “Japan’s Regrowth” as five priority issues (materialities). Under this framework, our Group has begun working as one to solve social issues.

Many employees endorsed our aim of creating social value upon the release of the Medium-Term Management Plan, yet some expressed uncertainty over what specifically should be done. To first ensure that employees solidly understand and agree with our aims, we held town hall meetings at sites in Japan and overseas, repeatedly discussed the background behind our addressing the creation of social value and our specific actions, and incorporated efforts to create social value into our evaluation system for all departments and employees.
To further back up our employees, in FY2024 we put forth a slogan of “Participation by all” for the 120,000 employees in our Group, under which we are energetically advancing measures that include support for activities and expansion of opportunities to be part of the creation of social value. Specific actions include setting an expense budget of ¥10 billion and an investment fund of ¥40 billion, creation of materials for use by employees in discussing social issues with customers, and expansion of our pro-bono work and commendation systems. Our measures are yielding results, with our most recent questionnaire showing over 60% of employees responding positively that they’ve undertaken actions to solve social issues in conjunction with their own work.
Through our initiatives under participation by all employees and leveraging our extensive customer base and our wide-ranging points of contact with society, we will cooperate with partners in tackling solutions to even more social issues.

On the topic of environmental issues, the correlation between climate change and natural capital and the impacts of climate change on social issues such as human rights and health are pointed out. The company of climate change issues have become apparent. We intend to make the greatest possible contribution as a global financial group to address this major challenge. Specifically, we are focusing on initiatives such as, financial and non-financial support for decarbonization efforts by domestic and overseas customers, raising our level of risk-taking for new energy and other new technologies such as offshore wind power and hydrogen-reduced iron, and providing transition finance. While transitions in Asia are particularly difficult from the “Just Transition” perspective, as a financial institution pursing a multi-franchise strategy in Asia and aiming for sustainable growth together with regional economies, we are commited to responding effectively. Given that the climate change presents us with not only business opportunities but also risks, we will strive to constantly raise the level of our governance.

We are also promoting visualization of our efforts aimed at creating social value and have decided to publish details in our Impact Report. As the creating social value becomes more important, we believe that along with financial indicators, positive and negative impacts on society and the environment will grow in importance as new metrics for measuring corporate value. By making these impacts visual, we will work toward the expansion of relevant solutions, enhancement of employees’ understanding, and objective and transparent disclosure toward stakeholders.
As Group CSuO, I will make every effort to ensure that SMBC Group executives and employees continue working as one to take the lead in solving social issues, and connect our action to the creation of social value and further to the enhancement of our corporate value.