CSR & Crisis Relief Efforts

A bridge to the future

For more than 400 years, sustainability has been fundamental to our business operations, and to this day it remains the foundation of our management at SMBC Group.

In Asia Pacific, SMBC contributes to building more inclusive and resilient communities in line with our Group-wide materiality priorities, reflecting our commitment to long-term social value creation.

Some of our spotlight projects & milestones:

  • ENVIRONMENT
  • COMMUNITY
  • NEXT GENERATION

SMBC embarked on a mission in 2018 to create a better tomorrow by enabling access to clean drinking water in Waghadi Village, India, a rural village over 180 kilometres from our Mumbai branch.

In the past, villagers relied heavily on a single stressed well for daily needs, with water quality that is not fit for consumption. The need to fetch water from the well also meant time costs, which deprived women and children.

By enabling convenient access to clean drinking water, it transforms lives with impact that extends beyond generations - and SMBC believes in investing for sustainable good.

Over the course of the three-year project from planning to construction of infrastructure and implementation with state-of-the-art Japanese water filtration technologies, jobs and upskilling opportunities were created.

Today, efforts have translated into better sanitized environment and convenience for villagers from the dedicated overhead water tank, 30 access points and 120 water taps which supplies up to 50,000 litres of clean water everyday.

Enabled access to clean water for

More than 1,770 tribal villagers

from 350 homes

& over 700 children

from neighbouring villages attending school at Waghadi
Upskilling local men and women with 90 jobs created over course of construction
Liberating women & young children
from the task of fetching water,
who can now go to work and school with
~4hours time-savings everyday

The clean drinking water project has since been extended to more villages and schools in India, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar – all of which to be sponsored by SMBC to make a sustainable impact for generations to come.

  • ENVIRONMENT
  • COMMUNITY

The world’s efforts toward net-zero is accelerated and backed by a strong call-to-action by the environment itself. The impact of climate change is real, and one of many ways its adverse effects will come back to us begins with its impact on the ecosystem and biodiversity. In many of the markets we operate in, the effects of environmental damage is already affecting the people around us.

That’s why SMBC has devoted efforts into restoring nature, for sustainable good.

In 2021

2,500 mangrove trees were planted

on Biak Island,
Indonesia

  • Jobs & income for local villagers
  • >7,500 tonnes of CO2 eliminated
  • Longstanding benefits to
    biodiversity from healthy forests
Via a local partnership, SMBC supported a reforestation project with the aim to alleviate extreme poverty through environmental stewardship.
In 2018
SMBC also partnered with WWF Singapore to raise public awareness
on reforestation. Trees were planted in Indonesia and Singapore,
including

850 trees

in Rimbang Baling, Indonesia
a UNESCO-recognised Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra,
habitat of many animal species in danger of extinction.
  • COMMUNITY
  • NEXT GENERATION

When the pandemic hit, it was not just healthcare systems that were shaken. The virus changed the way we live and work, and brought about unprecedented challenges for us – affecting especially the underprivileged.

As a leading financial institution present in close to 10 markets in Asia Pacific, we understand that our commitment and support is vital.

We continue to consider ways we can make a difference – whether through our influence, enabling access to resources, or monetary and in-kind donations.

Through SMBC’s crisis relief
efforts, we support:

For SMBC, it is about emerging stronger from crises, and doing so together with our stakeholders in the community. Meaningful crisis relief to us are efforts that contribute to sustainable good.