Hana Bank signs an MOU with KEPCO to promote carbon neutrality based on an ESG financial platform at Hana Bank's headquarters on July 8. Hana Bank President Park Sung-ho (left) poses for a photo shoot with KEPCO President Chung Seung-il. (Photo: Hana Bank)

Hana Bank that the bank’s president, Park Sung-ho, signed a business agreement with Chung Seung-il, president of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for the purpose of promoting carbon neutrality based on an environmental, social and governance (ESG) financial platform.

The announced was made on July 9 at Hana Bank Main Building in Seoul.

Hana Bank will release a financial product that applies lower interest rates to households which save electricity by making good use of KEPCO’s data within this year.

Hana Bank will launch products with interest rates by joining hands with KEPCO. That is to say, if a Hana Bank customer saves electric power, he or she can use Hana Bank loans at a lower interest rate.

“It is Korea’s first case where a financial company and an energy company collaborate to spread environmental, social and governance (ESG) management,” a Hana Bank official said.

Hana Bank plans to launch products and services that encourage energy conservation by linking KEPCO’s meter reading data this year.

KEPCO provides households’ electricity consumption data to customers through its mobile banking app “Hana One Q” and provides financial benefits, such as preferential interest rates to households that save electricity.

KEPCO is also planning to provide subsidies for power savings to consumers who have saved more than targets which they set.

The bank explained that it will be able to receive cash directly to their Hana Bank accounts, which will encourage consumers to become more active about saving electricity than its existing point systems such as the carbon point system and the eco-mileage system.

KEPCO expects that 170,000 households will be able to save up to 107 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually if they took part in this energy saving event.

The volume is equivalent to Naju City’s monthly electricity use amount (113GWh). It can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 49,894 tons. This can create the same effects as planting 7,559 pine trees.

A Hana Bank employee came up with this idea of giving benefits to Hana Bank customers who save electric power.

“We expect it to serve a good example for the entire Korean people to participate in an ESG event,” President Park said.

“We will continue to listen to fresh and practical opinions by promoting a horizontal organizational culture at Hana Bank.”

Meanwhile, Hana Bank announced on June 17 that it obtained an ISMS-P certificate from the Financial Security Institute (FSI). The ISMS-P refers to the Personal Information & Information Security Management System.

Prior to obtaining the ISMS-P certificate, Hana Bank obtained an ISMS certificate and an ISO27001 certificate for all global regional centers, becoming the first in the financial sector to be recognized for its excellence in digital, global, and personal information management.

The ISMS-P is Korea’s most prestigious information protection and personal information protection management system jointly announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Personal Information Protection Commission.

Through this ISMS-P certification, Hana Bank objectively verified the reliability and stability of its information protection system to meet domestic and foreign certification standards that financial companies should follow for the protection of both corporate and personal information.

“In the era of the MyData business, the importance of protecting customers’ information cannot be overemphasized,” a Hana Bank official said. “We will do our best to provide stable personalized financial services from a customer's perspective.”

The FSI is the sole security professional organization, established in April 2015, to create a safe and reliable financial environment.

It protects the financial industry from various cyber threats through threat monitoring, computer emergency response, vulnerability analysis and assessment.

Moreover, it carries out our role as a financial security partner for financial companies through financial security technology research, cyber security policy support, security standard establishment, and fintech security and financial big data activation support.