Shinhan Financial Group is widening the scope of its social contribution activities to education, the environment and culture.

The group has been pursuing philanthropic work since its flagship Shinhan Bank became the nation’s first commercial bank to file a “corporate social responsibility” report six years ago.

Among the group’s activities are offering scholarships for kids in need, launching forestry protection programs, preserving cultural historic assets and offering business classes for North Korean defectors and kids.

Under the initiative of group chairman Han Dong-woo, Shinhan Financial has been recently pushing for “warm-hearted financial services,” as a promise for shared growth with the underprivileged and sincere contribution to society.

“We are committed to returning our earnings to society by reaching out to the community and to emerging markets across Asia,” a Shinhan executive said.

He said the Shinhan volunteer team allows the financial group to work strategically whenever needs arise in the community.

Such efforts stand out from recent research saying that major Korean companies are strong on environmental issues but had a relatively poor understanding of social issues.

The Emerging Markets Disclosure Project, a task force under the U.S. Social Investment Forum, has found that some listed companies in the financial sector still do not publish CSR reports and that reporting on human rights is mostly ignored.

“Over the years, while we have found some Korean companies responsive to global investor concerns on sustainability issues including those we have engaged with directly, most avoid direct engagement with shareholders on these issues,” said a managing director of Boston Common Asset Management.

Among Korean firms who reported, environmental issues were covered in depth. At Shinhan, the effort is much broader, especially with its long-term investment in education and cultural asset protection.

Its banking unit launched a scholarship foundation that offers a total of 100 million won ($88,500) a year to children in emerging markets who are born to Korean parents.

The bank built a finance museum of Korea, another industry first. Some of the more regular activities include business educational programs for kindergarteners and elementary school kids and historical seminars for school teachers.

The group also has been joining with civil work groups to place name tags on indigenous trees at 18 national parks across the country. It is also developing forest tour routes to protect flora and fauna and educate visitors about them.

The latest environmental protection effort for Shinhan was its signing up of a memorandum of understanding with the Office of Forestry to reduce carbon emissions in the community.

Such efforts are reflected in its financial products and its marketing activities.

Some Shinhan products include the Green-Compound Interest Trust Account, Nakdong River Protection Account and Shinhan Green Growth Deposits.

“We also host photo exhibitions on green growth along with those products which are our efforts to grab as much attention as possible on environmental protection,” a Shinhan spokesman said.

The biggest, most systematic philanthropic work at Shinhan is its cultural asset protection program.

Employees at over 1,000 Shinhan branches have been attending seminars on cultural asset protection and monitoring the protection work in their regions since 2007.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)