Corporate Governance
As a trust bank group, the SuMi TRUST Group is proceeding to bolster its corporate governance structure in line with its business model. In addition to the statutory committees of a company with Three Committees, we have also established a Risk Committee and Conflicts of Interest Committee, both of which function as advisory bodies to the Board of Directors. We also strive to enhance management transparency by appointing an external director as chairman of the Board of Directors.
Basic Initiative Policy
In order to implement sound management based on a high degree of self-discipline guided by our fiduciary spirit and to gain the unwavering trust of society, we are committed to enhancing corporate governance along the lines of the following basic philosophy with the objective of improving the Group’s sustainable growth and medium- to long-term corporate value. Having defined the Group’s reason for existence (purpose) and identified issues of materiality, we also recognize that taking on the mission of solving social issues presents us with growth opportunities, which is why we have placed at the core of our management approach the notion that we must balance the creation of both social and economic value. As a foundation for every activity to be shared by all directors, officers, and employees of SuMi TRUST Group, the Board of Directors has established management principles (mission), an ideal model (vision), and codes of conduct (value).
Basic Philosophy
- SuMi TRUST Holdings shall respect shareholder rights, and endeavor to develop an environment in which shareholders can exercise their rights appropriately and effectively, and to secure the effectively equal treatment of shareholders.
- By recognizing the importance of its social responsibilities and public mission, SuMi TRUST Holdings shall endeavor to appropriately cooperate with its stakeholders, including shareholders, clients, employees, business partners, and local communities, and to establish a corporate culture and climate in which it conducts sound business operations based on a high degree of self-discipline.
- In order to establish a basis for constructive dialogue with its stakeholders, SuMi TRUST Holdings shall separately set out its Disclosure Policy, and endeavor to appropriately disclose corporate information, including non-financial information, and ensure the transparency of its corporate management.
- As the financial holding company that assumes the corporate management function of the SuMi TRUST Group, SuMi TRUST Holdings adopted the institutional design of a "company with Three Committees," and, by separating the execution and supervision of business, shall endeavor to ensure the Board of Directors' role of effective supervision.
- SuMi TRUST Holdings shall engage in constructive dialogue with its stakeholders in order to contribute to sustainable growth, as well as the medium- to long-term enhancement of the enterprise value of SuMi TRUST Holdings.
Basic Policy on Corporate Governance
Report Concerning Corporate Governance
Our Views on Corporate Governance
SuMi TRUST Holdings is a financial holding company with many subsidiaries under its Group umbrella, including SuMi TRUST Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, and Nikko Asset Management. Guided by our fiduciary spirit, we aim to leverage our significant expertise and creativity to combine our banking, asset management & administration, and real estate businesses to deliver total solutions to our clients as their "Best Partner." In order to fulfill our principles and live up to the expectations of our stakeholders, we make every effort to ensure the soundness and reliability of the Group's business model, as well as management transparency, and continually strive to enhance the Group's corporate governance.
Corporate Governance System
Members of Committees
* Mr. Hideki Kanda is an external director of SuMi TRUST Bank.
Independence of Directors
SuMi TRUST Holdings has established nomination policies of external directors in the Basic Policy on Corporate Governance
. External directors are decided from among a wide range of diversified individuals pursuant to the following nomination policies: (i) A person who satisfies the Independence Standards of Independent Directors of SuMi TRUST Holdings (the "Independence Standards"), and who is deemed unlikely to give rise to conflicts of interest with general shareholders of SuMi TRUST Holdings; (ii) A person who fully understands SuMi TRUST Holdings' management disciplines and the social responsibilities and roles of SuMi TRUST Holdings as a trust bank group, and who is able to oversee SuMi TRUST Holdings' management, and provide proper and appropriate opinions and advice. Furthermore, these seven external directors were appointed as independent officers as they satisfied the Independence Standards.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors at SuMi TRUST Holdings has appointed sufficient number of directors considered necessary and appropriate for the Board to demonstrate an effective supervisory function as required of a financial holding company tasked with the management of the Group. In determining the number of directors, due consideration is also given to ensuring diversity and expertise among directors.
In light of the importance of the functions of external directors in corporate governance, as a general rule, at least one third of the directors on the Board of Directors are independent external directors. The Board of Directors establishes and discloses Independence Standards of Independent Directors.
When deciding on director candidates, we nominate those that have considerable insight and extensive knowledge of corporate management, financial accounting, legal affairs, risk management, and compliance to address the Company’s priority issues (materiality), as well as an understanding of skills, sustainability, and so-called creative fields, such as IT and digital technology, unique to the trust business that can encourage the creation of new value. We endeavor to ensure that the makeup of the Board is suitable for appropriately overseeing the broad range of a trust bank group services, that each member can offer their astute opinions and advice, and that it is well balanced in terms of diversity.
- All seven external directors have been registered as independent officers with the relevant securities exchange.
- Of the 15 directors, 13 are male and two are female (shown in orange above).
- 16 Board of Directors meetings were convened during the period July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022. There were only two occasions on which one director was absent.
*For more informaton about Additional disclosure of "Area of Expertise of External Directors", please see the following document p.49:Presentation Material, Investor Meeting on Financial Results for 1HFY2022
(1) Board deliberations and main topics of discussion
The deliberations of the Board of Directors are based on an annual schedule formulated with reference to the Evaluation of the Board of Directors conducted every year. Accordingly, the topics discussed reflect changes in the internal and external operating environments.
In FY2021, the Board engaged in discussions about key topics from both offensive and defensive points of view with the aim of increasing corporate value and the amount of time it spent deliberating issues related to management strategies and monitoring, such as medium- to long-term management issues and strategies, increased from last year. Even though the Board discussions regarding risk management and governance topics decreased compared to last year, it continued to deliberate on the visualization of administrative processes and the development of risk maps in order to improve service quality, the source of a trust bank group’s strength. It also continued to discuss ways to further enhance the effectiveness of the internal control system and governance on a Group-wide basis. As such, the time spent discussing these topics was roughly the same as in FY2019 (23% for risk management and 15% for governance in FY2019).
Board deliberations
Main topics discussed by the Board in FY2021
| Subject | Topics |
|---|---|
| Management strategies and monitoring |
|
| Governance |
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| Risk management |
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| Finance |
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| Relationships with stakeholders |
|
(2) Discussions of management themes
With a view to determining the Group’s basic management policy and medium- to long-term strategies, the Board of Directors selects and deliberates on management materiality issues and other management themes from a medium- to long-term point of view. The external directors of SuMi TRUST Bank also participate in deliberations on management themes as Board meeting observers, not for the purpose of reaching conclusions, but to enhance Board deliberations with their viewpoints and opinions through free and open discussion.
This fiscal year, the focus of discussions was on the Group’s business portfolio. Through dialogue between the Board and business execution departments, the circumstances surrounding the Group’s business portfolio were discussed by putting the state of the financial industry into perspective and examining the Group’s positioning in light of the market structure and competitive environment, the perspectives of non-financial resources, including the power of trusts, and the highly uncertain operating environment, including digitalization and increasingly complex social issues. These kinds of discussions mean we can identify strategic areas of focus by formulating an outlook for our business portfolio over the medium-to-long term to generate value for stakeholders by balancing the creation of both social and economic value.
Every year we perform an evaluation of the Board of Directors in an effort to enhance its effectiveness by considering and adopting measures aimed at improving issues identified in the evaluation and by implementing the PDCA cycle.
PDCA Cycle
Committees
To ensure the effectiveness of corporate governance and further enhance the soundness and reliability of the Group’s business model, as well as the transparency of management, we have established the Risk Committee and the Conflicts of Interest Committee as advisory bodies to the Board of Directors to complement the three committees required under the Companies Act, namely, the Nominating Committee, the Compensation Committee, and the Audit Committee. As a trust bank group, the Conflicts of Interest Committee possesses supervisory functions unlike at any other financial group.
Every year, each committee conducts a self-evaluation in an effort to improve its autonomous management by considering and adopting measures aimed at improving issues identified in the evaluation. The results of the self-evaluations are reported to the Board of Directors in April for deliberation.
Meetings of Board of Directors and Committees(July 2021 through June 2022)
*1July 2021 through June 2022
*2July 2022 through June 2023
*3For the Audit Committee, audit instructions from the Board of Directors
Succession Plan
In order to achieve sustainable growth for the Group and enhance its corporate value, we have developed succession plans for the top management of SuMi TRUST Holdings and its major subsidiaries, SuMi TRUST Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management. We have also created management personnel development plans for those in charge of managing each business and those engaged in corporate management. These plans set out the ideals and requirements for directors and executive officers and aid in the management and development of a suitable pool of candidates. More specifically, even though candidates for top management are selected every year, the Nominating Committee deliberates on their selection, including future development policies, with reference to such information as performance, track record, assessments, experience, and skills whilst taking the current and future operating environment into account. These factors are reflected in job placement and responsibilities the following fiscal year and also prove useful in the development of top management. Also, when actually selecting a successor to top management, the Nominating Committee thoroughly deliberates on the candidates and the selection process and reports the results to the Board of Directors.
The progress of succession plans and development plans are periodically reported to the Board based on the aforementioned deliberations of the Nominating Committee.
Compensation System for Directors and Executive Officers
In principle, compensation is paid with a combination of monthly compensation (comprising fixed compensation and individual performance compensation), bonuses for directors and executive officers (performance-linked bonuses), and stock compensation (share delivery trust).
A system has been introduced to derive total bonus (performance-linked) and stock-based remuneration (share delivery trust) for directors and officers by calculating achievement rates for the items listed below with reference to KPIs and then multiplying the rates against a predetermined base. Please note that the method for reflecting evaluations into stock-based remuneration is being reviewed in FY2022.
The main changes are as follows.
<Main changes>
- The previous system of taking qualitative assessments of ESG as a component added on to the near-term earnings-linked performance evaluation into account has been changed to a system under which a 1:1:1 ratio for near-term earnings, medium-term financial metrics, and ESG is reflected in the performance evaluation for stock-based remuneration.
- The ESG assessment categories have been reviewed in light of materiality and now comprise the following five categories: climate change, fiduciary duties (FD) & client satisfaction (CS), employee engagement, D&I (empowerment of women, etc.), and ESG assessment organizations. We have therefore changed to a system in which the Compensation Committee determines an overall ESG score by quantitatively and qualitatively assessing these five categories and reflecting it in executive compensation.
New performance assessment system for stock-based remuneration
*MSCI, FTSE, and Sustainalytics
External Directors' Meetings
To further improve the effectiveness of corporate governance, external directors’ meetings*, which are attended exclusively by external directors, are held regularly.
These meetings, at which external directors engage in active and unrestrained discussions and share information and awareness from independent and objective positions, help foster a relationship of trust among the external directors and strengthen the supervisory function of the Board of Directors.
At the external directors’ meetings held in FY2021, taking the results of the Evaluation of the Board of Directors and other factors into account, the external directors discussed, among other matters, operational improvements and topics for future discussion at the Board of Directors meeting, and then offered recommendations to the executive.
*Voluntary meetings organized by the external directors and not prescribed in any of the Company’s regulations.