Recently, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) released its report of 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Ratings. The Postal Savings Bank of China (hereinafter referred to as PSBC) has been awarded the A rating on end after the year 2021, remaining a leading position in China’s banking sector.

ESG Ratings aim to assess a company’s environmental, social and corporate governance policies to determine its sustainability, and have increasingly become important criteria for the capital market to measure the investment value of listed companies. MSCI ESG Ratings are one of the ESG rating systems widely accepted by global investors, providing them with investment decision-making basis. The fact that PSBC has received the A rating for two consecutive years reveals its continuous efforts in the ESG field.

In terms of green and low-carbon development, PSBC adheres to green development philosophy, and supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. It has adopted the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), and become a support organization of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). PSBC has been vigorously developing sustainable and green finance as well as climate financing, supporting biodiversity conservation, and actively exploring transition finance and just transition, thereby striving to build itself into a first-class green, inclusive, climate-friendly and eco-friendly bank. As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, PSBC's green loan balance was 465.771 billion yuan (about 66.7 billion US dollars), up 25.11 percent over the end of last year. And its balance of green financing was 546.059 billion yuan (about 78.1 billion US dollars), up 27.55 percent over the end of last year.

In facilitating economic and social development, PSBC has been innovatively serving agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as urban and rural residents, and making every effort to foster a first-class large retail bank featuring responsibility, resilience and warmth. Taking the digitalization of financial services for agriculture, rural areas and farmers as the main task, the development of the rural credit system as a starting point and the intensive operation reform of financial services for agriculture, rural areas and farmers as a pillar, PSBC has been continuously consolidating its core competitive edge of online-offline service model, and committed to building a digital banking ecosystem for rural revitalization. By the end of the third quarter, PSBC’s agriculture-related loans had a balance of 1.77 trillion yuan (about 253.3 billion US dollars), an increase of 152.377 billion yuan (about 21.8 billion US dollars) over the end of the previous year. PSBC has been improving the financial service capacity and level for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and building a digital and professional service system for micro and small finance. The balance of inclusive loans to micro and small enterprises has reached 1.15 trillion yuan (about 164.5 billion US dollars), accounting for more than 16 percent of total customer loans. PSBC has strengthened technology empowerment of financial services, and continued to improve customer experience and enhanced the well-being and livelihood of the people, serving more than 650 million private customers.

In optimizing corporate governance system, the Board of Directors of PSBC attaches great importance to ESG, sets up a special committee on social responsibilities and consumer rights and interests protection, pushes ahead with the integration of ESG-related work into its development strategy, governance structure, corporate culture and business processes, and gives play to its role as a large bank in developing green and inclusive finance, revitalizing rural areas, and protecting consumer rights and interests.