Last Year, Banks' Social Contribution Amounted to 1.2 Trillion Won... 350 Billion Won for Low-Income Financial Services

The Korea Federation of Banks Publishes '2022 Social Contribution Activities Report'

The Korea Federation of Banks' social contribution amount last year reached 1.238 trillion KRW, an increase of 16.6% compared to the previous year.

The Korea Federation of Banks published the "2022 Bank Social Contribution Activities Report" on the 30th, containing this information. Since 2006, the Federation has been releasing annual reports to transparently disclose the social contribution activities and achievements of the banking sector.

The social contribution amount of the banking sector was 351.4 billion KRW at the time of the first performance aggregation in 2006, but it has increased every year, maintaining over 1 trillion KRW annually since 2019, continuing its growth trend. Furthermore, the scope has expanded from donation- and charity-oriented activities to overall activities fulfilling corporate social responsibility, promoting both quantitative and qualitative growth.

By sector, the social contribution amount was highest in the community and public interest sector at 721 billion KRW (58.2%), followed by financial services for low-income groups at 358.9 billion KRW (29.0%), academic and educational activities at 70.8 billion KRW (5.7%), Mecenat at 58.2 billion KRW (4.7%), environment at 19.6 billion KRW (1.6%), and global activities at 9.5 billion KRW (0.8%).

This report reflects revisions such as performance-based reorganization and format changes, focusing on various improvements discussed regarding the banking sector’s social contribution status by the Financial Services Commission’s "Banking Sector Management, Business Practices, and System Improvement Task Force (TF)."

First, the existing six major activity sectors were classified into a total of 24 detailed items, and the support and activity amounts for each item were disclosed in detail. Standardized aggregation criteria were established for each item, and activities that could be considered profit-making (e.g., conditional sponsorship activities such as main transaction agreements) were excluded from the aggregation of the six major activity sectors to enhance the reliability of social contribution performance.

Differentiation by bank was also strengthened. For individual banks’ public interest activities that are difficult to aggregate under standardized common criteria, explanations were provided through a newly established "Additional Activities" section to highlight the uniqueness of each bank. Additionally, each bank’s mid- to long-term direction regarding social contribution activities was considered and introduced through "Bank-specific Social Contribution Activities."

Disclosure of qualitative items was also enhanced. Besides quantitative items, a "Win-win Finance and Additional Activities" section was added to "Bank-specific Social Contribution Activities" to reinforce qualitative items. In the "Public Interest-linked Financial Products (such as Win-win Finance) and Services" section, the current status of win-win finance, financial education, alternative branch operations, and related websites and foundation information operated by each bank were clearly organized.

Kim Kwang-soo, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, stated, “With the revision and publication of this report, the transparency and effectiveness of banks’ social contribution performance will be enhanced, and I hope more people will take an interest in the diverse corporate social responsibility activities of the banking sector.” He added, “We will continue to support banks in carrying out distinctive social responsibility activities according to their mid- to long-term directions and continuously discover opportunities that practically help the public.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.