Case study: How Kyushu Financial Group identifies and works on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts
Kyushu Financial Group offers a wide range of financial services primarily in Central and Southern Kyushu, Japan. Its subsidiaries include Higo Bank, Kagoshima Bank, and Kyushu FG Securities. While banking is the core of the Group’s operations, it also provides additional financial services such as leasing, credit card issuance, trust business, credit guarantees, and financial instruments transactions. Kyushu Financial Group is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) and is, accordingly, identifying and working on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2025 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement by Kyushu Financial Group prepared in relation to its implementation of the PRB, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Which Principles for Responsible Banking have been addressed?
The Principles for Responsible Banking addressed in this case are:
- Principle 3: Clients and Customers
- Principle 4: Stakeholders
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- How Kyushu Financial Group proceeded with stakeholder identification and consultation, and
- How Kyushu Financial Group identified and worked on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts
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Stakeholder identification and consultation
Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.
Kyushu Financial Group emphasizes ongoing dialogue and collaboration with its stakeholders to foster sustainable local communities. As a regional financial institution based in Central and Southern Kyushu—primarily in Kumamoto, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki Prefectures— Kyushu Financial Group is strengthening its relationships with municipalities and local businesses, fulfilling its responsibilities and roles as a community-focused financial institution.
■ Entering into partnership agreements with municipalities for local revitalization
■ Forming partnership agreements with local companies
■ Engaging in domestic and overseas initiatives
How did Kyushu Financial Group identify and work on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts?
In its 2025 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement Kyushu Financial Group reports that it identified and worked on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts as follows:
Kyushu Financial Group has recognized the “Sustainable growth of the regional economy” as a key priority and has set ESG investment and loan targets to enhance its positive influence on the local economy. Furthermore, guided by the management and promotion framework outlined in Principle 2 in the Group’s 2025 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement, Kyushu Financial Group offers consulting services related to the SDGs to assist its customers in their SDG-oriented initiatives.
Main products handled and results in FY2024
| Name | Description | Result |
| SDGs consulting (incl. carbon neutral consulting) | · Identification of customer’s priority SDGs · Impact analysis in each sector by industry · Preparation of action plans, including specific goal setting and items to tackle · Support for calculating CO2 emissions, etc. | 136 |
| Support for the SDGs registration system and SDGs Declaration Preparation Support Service | · Understanding the state of customers’ initiatives for SDGs · Analysis, declaration formulation, and PR support · Proposing concrete solutions to achieve SDGs after formulating a declaration | 109 |
UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet
With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.
FBRH Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Assurance:
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The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.
References:
This case study is based on published information by Kyushu Financial Group, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:
https://www.kyushu-fg.co.jp/english/assets/pdf/csr/initiative_prb_01.pdf
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