CSuO Message

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 identified environmental risks such as extreme weather events and biodiversity loss as the most important risks over the next decade. The further away we think about the future, the greater the number of important issues there are for the survival of our planet. At the same time, increasing geopolitical tensions and ESG backlash are making sustainable business management more difficult. Under these circumstances, we shall reconfirm the significance of sustainability management through enforced engagement with both internal and external stakeholders, and advance it based on a shared understanding.

With an aim to realize our Group’s Purpose - “Trust for a flourishing future” - SuMi TRUST Group places the balanced creation of social and economic value at the core of our business management. Sustainability management is the key to achieving this goal. Business and social value creation are not separate initiatives. Rather, solving societal issues while making profits as a business leads to sustainable solutions to various issues. I believe this is the essence of our Group’s sustainable business management as a private company.

SuMi TRUST Group has three core companies - SuMi TRUST Bank, SuMi TRUST Asset Management, and Amova Asset Management - and our sustainability management leverages synergies within the Group. Both of our asset management companies are signatories of the UK Stewardship Code, in which the world’s highest level of stewardship performance is required. They lead Japanese companies to achieve their optimal sustainability management through high quality engagement. SuMi TRUST Bank provides a wide array of solutions in each ESG field, some of which integrate trust functions, and support companies in advancing their sustainability management in a concrete manner. In this sense, our purpose of sustainability management is not limited to our own group’s value creation, but rather, it is meant to increase the corporate value of a wide range of Japanese companies through enforcing their intangible asset values.

With respect to environmental issues, we are undertaking a variety of initiatives toward decarbonization. In 2024, we established ERM SuMi TRUST Consulting as a joint venture with the ERM Group, one of the largest independent sustainability advisory companies in the world. The new company offers decarbonization advisory services to our corporate clients in the formulation of decarbonization strategies, business decarbonization including green transformation of assets, and compliance with decarbonization-related regulations in Japan and overseas. We also established Japan Forest Asset, a joint venture with Sumitomo Forestry. Japan Forest Asset plans to acquire and reforest cutover areas of managed forests and develop a circular business of forestry that may include creating carbon credits in the future. We believe that sustainable forest management, in the near future, is expected to play an important role in conserving biodiversity as well. In 2025, we launched a new loan product named as Impact Finance for Nature to address biodiversity issues. This new product supports corporate clients’ biodiversity initiatives and expands SuMi TRUST Bank’s sustainable finance lineup.

SuMi TRUST Group’s financial inclusion initiatives in the social area have supported the advancement of Japan’s financial inclusion policies through our R&D and policy advocacy activities. Although access to financial services for lower income households, women, and social minorities is recognized as a challenge for financial inclusion globally, it is already well advanced in Japan. Considering Japan’s ageing society, safe and secure financial access for the elderly is a challenge and SuMi TRUST Group has been focusing on financial inclusion in this area. In recent years, other developed and developing countries have seen their populations aging, and the efforts of Japanese financial institutions in this area, including that of our Group, will help the world to address similar challenges in the future. Moreover, in line with Japan’s policy focus on “Promoting Japan as a Leading Asset Management Center”, further expansion of investment education for younger people is crucial. Accordingly, from the current fiscal year, our three core group companies will work towards such educational programs.

In terms of governance, SuMi TRUST Bank has been conducting its “Corporate Governance Survey” since FY2017, which includes questions related to sustainability. This is one of the largest surveys in this area in Japan. In FY2024, it analyzed the responses of approximately 1,800 corporate clients, in other words, nearly half of all publicly listed companies in Japan, and we provide participating companies with feedback including suggestions for improvement. In addition, many companies also use our consulting services to support them in evaluating the effectiveness of their boards of directors and holding dialogues with their investors. We are proud that these efforts, together with high-quality engagement by our Group’s asset management companies, have contributed to improving corporate governance in Japan.

Our impact on society “here and now” creates the future with prosperous livelihood. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Japan faced many societal challenges, including poverty. However, thanks to the efforts of our predecessors in paving a way to the future, Japan boasts the fourth largest GDP^* in the world, enjoying economic affluence. This year marks the 101st anniversary of the founding of SuMi TRUST Group. I know that our Group has not just pursued its own growth, but has continuously strived to develop human capital through business and enrich society at large, which led to our sustainable growth over a century. We must concern ourselves with more than our present lives. As we appreciate the past, we shall devote ourselves to building a flourishing future. Last but not least, our Group’s sustainable growth going forward, can only be achieved by contributing to the sustainability of our human world and the entire planet. This conviction should be our guide to keeping us at the forefront as we move towards the future.

*(as of March 31,2025)

Director, Managing Executive Officer CSuO Chikako Matsumoto