Sustainability of the Credit Saison Group | CREDIT SAISON Investor Relations

To earn the trust of our stakeholders and grow sustainably, we are pursuing initiatives towards the sustainable development of society and solving problems in ways that only the Credit Saison Group can.

Basic stance on sustainability
Important sustainability issues
(material issues)
Governance and risk management

Basic stance on sustainability

Being a "leading-edge service company" as stated in our management philosophy, we will continue to be committed to helping establish a society that is more convenient, prosperous and sustainable than it is now by leveraging our unique expertise, management resources and the experience of our employees and by contributing to the development of society and the resolution of problems in a way that only the Credit Saison Group can through its usual business operations.

Co-creating value with our stakeholders

Continuing to be a company that is needed by society requires that we understand what stakeholders want and ensuring that services and corporate activities reflect these needs. We always listen to stakeholders’ opinions sincerely and use these opinions to enhance the Credit Saison Group’s corporate value and sustained growth.

— Stakeholder engagement

We continually engage in dialogue with stakeholders and ensure their opinions and requests are reflected in our services and corporate activities.

Major stakeholders	Method of interaction	Policies and initiatives
Customers	Customer service at stores and call center operations Websites, social media, apps	We seek to solve the problems of corporations and individuals through financial services functioning at the core of financial services, and to enrich customers' lives. ・Our customer service channels are geared toward addressing customers’ needs and include serving customers face-to-face at Saison counters at affiliated stores around the country, communicating with customers online through our website, apps and other means. ・We believe that customer feedback, including the opinions, requests and complaints we receive via call centers, portal sites, stores and other points of contact, is a valuable management resource, and we strive to improve our products and services based on the feedback we receive. ・The Saison’s Lifestyle Research website provides information for solving customers' problems and concerns. In the approximately one year since the website was created, it racked up more than 2.5 million views per month.* (As of September 2022) ・Our Internet service (Net Answer) and smartphone app (Saison Portal) enable customers to see the amount of money to be paid, conduct procedures and keep up to date on privileges. With these, we strive to improve customer convenience through the improvement of UI and UX. Net Answer has 15.6 million subscribers and Saison Portal has hit 12.1 million total downloads as of March 2023.
Partners	Dialogue through business partnership and transactions	We will create a better society through co-creation with partners. ・We develop solutions that combine our strengths with other companies’ technologies, ideas, services, etc. and we also support startups to develop new services and partner with these companies. ・We exchange information about the status of sustainability-related initiatives. ・For global operations, we partner with local non-bank financial institutions and FinTech businesses to operate a lending business for individuals and small and medium-sized companies.
Local communities	Partnership agreements with municipal governments and social contribution activities	We seek to protect the rich natural environment and the culture that enriches life, and energizing people in the region and community. ・We have held 335 SAISON TEACHER visiting classes. Teachers visit schools around the country to help student, who will lead the next generation, to acquire correct financial knowledge and become independent consumers. A total of 15,400 children have attended these classes.* *Cumulative total from December 2019 to March 2022 ・We also put a lot of effort into industry-academia partnerships. For example, we concluded a comprehensive agreement with Ritsumeikan University in October 2018 and an educational partnership agreement with Reitaku University in August 2022 with the goal of helping develop educational research, industries and the human resources to facilitate the development of research and industries. ・We operate Akagi Nature Park to make sure we are able to hand a rich natural environment down to the next generation. Our initiatives for protecting the environment and biodiversity continue. ・We also support sports and cultural activities. In fact, we are a major partner of Japan's national soccer team. ・We also accept contributions and donations by card payment and by using Eikyufumetsu Points. (E.g. Turkey-Syria earthquake, emergency support for Ukraine)
Shareholders	Shareholders’ meetings, financial results briefings, integrated reports and attending conferences	We seek to enhance our corporate value through sustainable growth and sound corporate management. ・We actively organize events separately tailored to shareholders and investors, to securities and bonds analysts and to personal investors. They include financial results briefings, conference calls, business strategy briefings and participation in IR events for personal investors. ・In FY2022, we had two briefings with institutional investors by phone attended by about 150 people. We also met 214 times with sell-side analysts and institutional investors.
Employees	Dialogue via Intranet, employee training, dialogue with the executives, periodical interviews for feedback	We seek to develop human resources and organizations in a way that enables each one to be himself/herself. ・The revision of our personnel system in FY2022 reviewed our employees’ competencies in terms of desirable behavior, with an aim to motivate employees to take on challenges without being afraid of making mistakes and to develop the climate of cooperation with greater psychological safety. ・An internal venture program “SWITCH SAISON” encourages employees to, in a bottom-up manner, submit their business proposals for commercialization. Since it started in 2019, we have been choosing from about 1,000 proposals in cumulative total.

Important sustainability issues (material issues)

— Process for setting priority themes

Five priority themes have been defined to enable the Credit Saison Group to pursue the realization of a society that is more convenient, prosperous and sustainable than it is now.

STEP１Identifying and organizing social issues

Social issues are organized on the basis of international guidelines from ESG assessment agencies, the GRI, the IIRC and other institutions and information from outside consulting firms.

STEP2Assessment of importance

Identifying the factors that have a high impact on business operations and society

STEP3Decisions made at the management level

The Sustainability Promotion Committee chaired by the Representative, Executive President and COO, decides five priority themes.
Discussion is under way to set KPIs and disclose more information.

— Material issues and initiatives

Material issues	Approaches	Initiatives
Enrich customers' lives and help them live their lives happily in their own ways	・Establish a safe, secure and convenient society ・Solve individual and corporate problems with the financial services functioning at the core of financial services	・Increase the popularity of cashless transactions in society (develop infrastructure and a variety of payment services for individuals and corporations) ・Financial and career education for individuals and corporations ・Financial and career education for the next generation ・Develop and provide services from the perspective of customers with limitations ・Enhance EX through the promotion of CSDX
Establish a better society through co-creation with partners	・Work with suppliers, business collaborators and others to offer new value ・Realize financial inclusion by involving Asia	・Utilize digitalization, expertise and resources in the optimization of solutions ・Create new businesses, business synergy and innovation through domestic and international CVCs ・Offer financial services to meet local needs through global operations
Develop human resources and organizations in a way that enables each person to be themselves	・Develop an environment and cultivates a culture that enables diverse activities. Invest in human resources ・Cultivate good citizens who are active members of society	・Build a system, structure and climate for empowering human resources with limitations ・Implement measures to develop employees' capabilities and bring out the value of human resources ・Build a structure and climate to help employees work as good citizens
Protect the rich natural environment and culture that enriches life, and energizing people in the region and community	・Show consideration for the global environment, supporting cultural and sports activities ・Engage in co-creation with governments, regional societies, and communities	・Practice the declared support for the TCFD ・Operate Akagi Nature Park to develop the next generation and protect the environment ・Reduce paper consumption and CO2 emissions ・Develop and provide merchandise and services to contribute to decarbonization and other environmental causes ・Cooperate with municipal governments in accordance with specific issues ・Support sports activities such as Japan's national soccer team and cultural activities like Jose Carreras concerts
Enhance our corporate value through sustainable growth and sound corporate management	Strengthen corporate governance ・Strengthen the integration of the Group's growth strategy and sustainability activities	・Enhance the business management structureThe Nomination & Remuneration Committee was established in June 2019 and the executive officer system was introduced in March 2020 ・Ensure diversity, including the promotion of more women to executive-level positions ・Formulate business strategy goals that reflect a sustainability-oriented perspective

Governance and risk management

— Governance

Taking action to address sustainability-related issues such as the consideration of climate change and other global environmental issues, respect for human rights, the health and working environment of employees, the fair and appropriate treatment of employees, fair and appropriate trade with suppliers and crisis management to handle natural disasters and other events is very important in our management of our business. These actions help mitigate risks and create revenue opportunities. Based on this understanding, the Sustainability Promotion Committee was established in August 2021 as an organization for discussing the direction of our activities to achieve our sustainability-related strategies and to respond to inquiries from the representative director. The Committee is chaired by the Representative, Executive President and COO.

Being an advisory body to the Representative Directors regarding sustainability activities, our entire Group is strengthening its efforts to solve social and environmental issues through our business to realize a sustainable society.
With the Representative, Executive President and COO serving as its chair, the Committee comprises globally minded male and female members who hail from within and outside the Company and are thus able to promote the exchange of various opinions.

The Committee has three working groups: the Climate Change Strategy Promotion Working Group (WG), the DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Promotion WG and the Social Impact WG. Reporting to and receiving instructions from the Committee, the working groups regularly respond to questions from the Representative Director regarding sustainability strategies and initiatives introduced throughout the Credit Saison Group, and reports on them to the Board of Directors when necessary. (*1)
Since September 2021, the Committee, the Climate Change Strategy Promotion WG and the DE&I promotion WG have, in principle, met every month(*2) for discussion. The Social Impact WG was established in February 2023 and it engages in discussion as the other WGs do.

*1: Number of reports to the Board of Directors: 1 in FY2021 and 1 in FY2022
*2: Number of committee meetings and WG meetings held
　　 Sustainability Promotion Committee: 7 in FY2021 and 9 in FY2022
　　 Climate Change Strategy Promotion WG: 11 in FY2021 and 10 in FY2022
　　 DE&I promotion WG: 9 in FY2021 and 9 in FY2022

＜Sustainability Promotion Committee organization chart＞

＜Sustainability Promotion Committee Members＞

Sustainability Promotion Committee Members

Chairperson	Katsumi Mizuno Representative, Executive President and COO
Vice Chairperson	Yoshiyuki Kimura Executive Officer
Members	Nana Otsuki Outside Director
	Kosuke Mori Director, Senior Managing Executive Officer
	Kazue Yasumori Managing Executive Officer
	Yuichi Kawahara Executive Officer
	Hironao Wakamei Executive Officer
	Satoko Takeda Head of Advertising Manegement Office, Branding Strategy Dept.

ー Criteria for selection of members of the Sustainability Promotion Committee

・The chairperson shall be the Representative, Executive President and COO.
・Members shall be selected from many different departments and divisions such as the Corporate Planning Dept., Group Strategic Management Dept., Strategic Human Resources Dept., Global Business Division and Treasury & Accounting Dept.
・The male-female ratio shall be generally fifty-fifty.
・The Committee will also include outside directors to hear opinions from objective and neutral perspectives.
・Third-party organizations shall also be involved in committee activities to obtain advice and recommendations in the area of their expertise.

— Responsibility for supervising sustainability

The Board of Directors is the supervisory body for sustainability issues. The Sustainability Promotion Committee is an advisory body to the Board of Directors and it meets regularly. The entire Credit Saison Group is strengthening its efforts to solve social and environmental issues through our business to realize a sustainable society. Sustainability-related strategies (including scenario analyses), plans, assessments and goals are discussed and reported at Sustainability Promotion Committee meetings. Resolutions approved by the Committee are regularly reported to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is responsible for supervising the achievement of sustainability-related goals.

ー Risk management

The Risk Management Committee and Corporate Risk Management Dept. lead the efforts to mitigate risk and minimize the impact of risks should they occur. To this end, our employees regularly receive in-house training and endeavor to maintain our risk management system in accordance with the Risk Management Regulations, Regulations on Management of Risks of Losses and Crisis Management Regulations. Regarding the issues underlying the Credit Saison Group or governance-related matters that involve serious risks, the Group Strategic Management Department leads the supervision of the execution of business by the companies of the Credit Saison Group and shares information with the supervisory divisions of the Credit Saison Group companies.

For climate change risks, risks relating to our handling of human resources and human rights, risks related to ESG investment in the global business and other sustainability-related risks, the Sustainability Promotion Committee leads the formulation of policies and strategies for minimizing risks and seizing opportunities and structurally monitors related efforts.
The Comprehensive Planning Office of the Corporate Planning Dept., the Public Relations Office and the Corporate Risk Management Dept., which collectively are the administrative body supporting the Sustainability Promotion Committee, lead the regular review of the various risks and opportunities.