Case study: How the SBI Shinsei Bank Group works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

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.

The SBI Shinsei Bank Group Sustainability Management Policy outlines the fundamental principle of engaging with stakeholders. Collaborating with stakeholders, including customers, partners (suppliers, subcontractors, business associates), employees, local communities, governments, shareholders and investors, as well as other for-profit and non-profit entities, to co-create value is crucial. Through meaningful dialogue with stakeholders (engagement), the SBI Shinsei Bank Group continuously assesses the Group’s sustainability management and drives value-added initiatives for stakeholders.

How did the SBI Shinsei Bank Group work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2023 PRB Report the SBI Shinsei Bank Group reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

The SBI Shinsei Bank Group has established a “Responsible Investment and Lending Policy,” which prohibits engaging in new investment and lending activities for the construction of new coal-fired thermal power plants. This aligns with the identification of “climate change-related fields in the corporate investment and loan business in Japan” in the impact analysis.

In the process of initiating new investments, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group collaborates with its clients to identify negative environmental and social impacts based on this policy and the Equator Principles. Additionally, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group implements an in-house system to assess sustainable impact. The Sustainable Impact Development Division of SBI Shinsei Bank collaborates with each department to formulate and implement sustainable finance strategies and provide business support to customers contributing to addressing climate change. To develop and implement sustainable finance, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group has devised the Shinsei Green Finance Framework and the Shinsei Sustainability Linked Loan Framework, which adhere to principles both domestically and internationally, such as the Green Loan Principles and the Sustainability Linked Loan Principles. The Sustainable Impact Assessment Department, part of the Sustainable Impact Development Division, evaluates the appropriateness of financing within this framework. Under this system, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group is advancing sustainable finance with the objective of originating a total of JPY 5 trillion by the end of fiscal 2030.

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.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by the SBI Shinsei Bank 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://corp.sbishinseibank.co.jp/en/sustainability/initiative/initiative/main/07/teaserItems2/02/linkList/0/link/prbreport_e_2023.pdf

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