South Korea’s JB Financial Group received an overall “A plus” rating for the firm’s environmental, sustainable and governance values by the nation’s leading proxy advisory institution for the second consecutive year.

JB Financial said Monday it has received the second highest level of a seven-tier ESG rating from the Korea Corporate Governance Service, citing the firm’s recent progress in adopting ESG values in management.

This year, KCGS’ ESG ratings involved 950 local companies and only the top 1.8 percent of the firms were included in the A plus bracket.

In detail, JB Financial received an A plus in governance for the second straight year, an A plus in social – moving up a notch from the previous year – and A in environment. Only 8 of the 950 firms received A plus in governance this year, the firm said.

The firm said earlier this month that it has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a UN-convened alliance of global banks committed to aligning their portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.

In September, JB Financial committed to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking, a framework set by the UN and the financial industry ensuring that the banks’ practices align with the Paris Climate Agreement and other sustainable goals. It has also declared support of the UN Women‘s Empowerment Principles, promoting global gender equality.

JB Financial logged a third-quarter net profit of 134 billion won ($114 million) gaining 21.9 percent on-year, according to its regulatory filing. It posted a cumulative net profit of 412.4 billion won for the January-September period, hitting an all-time high of 38 percent on-year for the cited period.

JB Financial Group is the holding group of a total of seven companies, including four subsidiaries ― Jeonbuk Bank, Kwangju Bank, JB Woori Capital and JB Asset Management ― and three grandchild companies ― Phnom Penh Commercial Bank (PPCBank), and JB Capital Myanmar, and JB Securities Vietnam in ASEAN nations.

(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)