Shinhan Bank
Each year, Shinhan Bank finds new layers to add to its already complex corporate and social responsibility offering.
It was the first Korean financial institution ever to publish its own CSR report, back in 2005. Since then it has set a number of benchmarks, becoming the first Korean lender to form a standalone sustainability committee, and the first to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Two years ago, it said it would invest W20 trillion ($18.3 billion) in green industries by 2030 and cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, just shy of 90,000 equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide. The bank’s goal is to put compassionate finance at the heart of everything it does, while its main mission is to make the pursuit of “sustainable growth in partnership with society”.
This means pushing to raise levels of financial inclusion. Shinhan Bank says it lent W2.3 trillion to low-income customers in 2019, and reckons it has helped 943,000 people to study for and pass financial literary examinations since 2012.