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Company Response

1 Dec 2021

Mizuho Financial Group's response to BankTrack report on Equator banks

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

[...]

From the perspective of confidentiality, we are unable to provide information on individual cases included in this report. Therefore, we would like to explain our Environmental Policy and our Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity, which relate to the concerns the report has raised.

Mizuho

Under our recognition that climate change is one of the most crucial global issues with the potential to impact the stability of financial markets, representing a threat to the environment, society, people's lifestyles, and businesses, we established "Environmental Policy" in April 2020. In April 2021, we revised the policy to clarify our contribution to a decarbonized society (net-zero greenhouse gas emissions) by 2050, support for the Paris Agreement's objective, and transformation to a finance portfolio aligned with the Paris Agreement targets.

Also, giving due consideration to the expectations and perspectives of stakeholders, we established "Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity" to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts on the environment. Based on this policy, for certain sectors, we make decisions on financing and investment after confirmation on clients' steps taken to avoid or mitigate risk to avoid or mitigate risk, given the risk to be aware of.

Our executives and monitoring committee will regularly review and enhance their implementation, with consideration to changes in the external environment and the results of implementation. Following these reviews, our governing bodies may revise or otherwise make changes to our measures to enhance their implementation. The most recent revision was made in March 2021 from the perspective of strengthening our response to climate change, biodiversity, and human rights issues.

The fourth version of the Equator Principles, which strengthen the response to climate change, mentioned in the report, came into effect for transactions with a mandate on or after October 1, 2020 (Mizuho Bank has implemented the fourth version of the Equator Principles to transactions for which it received a mandate on or after July 1, 2020 (implemented earlier)). We believe that this report contains incorrect information regarding the effective date of the fourth version of the Equator Principles.

(For reference)
Mizuho's Environmental Policy
https://www.mizuhogroup.com/sustainability/environment/policy/environmentalpolicy

Mizuho's Overview of our Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity

https://www.mizuhogroup.com/binaries/content/assets/pdf/mizuhoglobal/sustainability/business-activities/investment/environment_202106.pdf

Timeline