Resona Holdings

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the responsibility for sustainability issues within Resona Holdings lies with the board of directors. As a signatory to the Women Empowerment Principles, the bank publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In addition, Resona Holdings publishes case studies describing where it has engaged successfully on environmental topics with investees.

Resona Holdings discloses its loan assets, including small- and medium-sized customers, as one of the priorities to engage with on climate change. In addition, the bank discloses palm oil, marine plastic use, and deforestation as topics of engagement in its investment activities. As a member of Climate Action 100+ and Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR), Resona Holdings demonstrates it collectively engages with companies to which it provides financial services on climate change and biodiversity.

Resona Holdings has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights, the ILO core labour rights, to provide a safe workplace as well as to prohibit bribery and corruption. In addition, the bank has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals, and communities to raise human rights complaints. In terms of diversity and inclusion, it publishes the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. In addition, Resona Holdings provides evidence of a global tax strategy, responsibility for which lies with an executive-level position.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership, Resona Holdings has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive and management teams to sustainability performance criteria. In addition, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only two out of nine board members are women. The bank has an opportunity to further improve its performance on gender equality by disclosing the proportion of women in senior leadership roles and actions it takes to address any gender pay gaps. Resona Holdings has an opportunity to disclose its approach to engagement with its clients and investees across its financing activities.

There is an opportunity for Resona Holdings to provide evidence of a net-zero financed emissions target by 2050. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to engage with clients on aligning with the Paris Agreement. Additionally, it could disclose its financing activities devoted to climate solutions. With regards to nature and biodiversity, Resona Holdings discloses that it is committed to minimising the negative impacts of its operations on nature and biodiversity. However, it could extend this commitment across its financing activities.

Resona Holdings has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. In terms of diversity and inclusion, the bank has an opportunity to disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group, race, ethnicity or another indicator of diversity. To improve its performance on financial inclusivity, Resona Holdings could disclose the amount of finance directed towards women-owned businesses and low-income developing countries.