Case study: How Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is a worldwide financial organization headquartered in Japan. The Group operates across various sectors, including banking, leasing, credit cards, securities, and consumer finance. Its mission is to generate social value by addressing societal challenges while fostering economic growth, ultimately aiming to enhance the well-being and happiness of people within society—essentially, promoting growth for the purpose of happiness. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) and is, accordingly, working with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the FY2024 PRB Report by Sumitomo Mitsui 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:
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- Principle 3: Clients and Customers
- Principle 4: Stakeholders
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- How Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group proceeded with stakeholder identification and consultation, and
- How Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group worked with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities
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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.
- Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group interacts with a diverse array of stakeholders, including customers, investors, NGOs, employees, local communities, and international initiatives.
- For more information on Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s engagement strategy, please refer to the “Stakeholder Engagement” section on the Group’s website and page 29 of its Integrated Report.
- In April 2024, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group introduced a new policy regarding biomass power generation. This policy was developed through stakeholder dialogue, considering environmental impacts and respecting human rights. For additional details on Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s discussions related to environmental and human rights issues, please see pages 33, 34, and 60 of its Sustainability Report.
How did Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?
In its FY2024 PRB Report Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:
- Starting in FY2024, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation introduced the “Environmental and Social Due Diligence” process to strengthen risk management and deepen engagement with customers by assessing their environmental and social initiatives alongside their risk mitigation strategies. For more details on Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s climate change-related customer engagement, please refer to pages 33 to 34 of its Sustainability Report 2024.
- Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has expanded its “Cross-Sectoral and Cross-Business Policies” to explicitly include projects identified as involving child labour, forced labour, or human trafficking.
- In May 2023, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group released the “Transition Finance Playbook” (revised in May 2024), which outlines definitions and criteria for transition finance. Additionally, in November 2024, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group published the “Transition Finance Scorebook 2024,” summarizing key insights, challenges faced, and proposed actions based on stakeholder dialogues informed by this Playbook.
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:
First class PRB assurance services: The result of solid, hands-on ESG/ Sustainability experience
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- FBRH is a GRI Certified Training Partner (Global), ISEP Training Centre and a member of CPD.
- FBRH builds trust. Over 200 reviews from top professionals from around the world demonstrate our ability to build strong, trusting business relationships.
- FBRH possesses a unique skill set that combines ESG/sustainability certified training, experience in advisory services and report preparation, and ESG/sustainability report 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 Sumitomo Mitsui 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:
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