Kakao Pay earns overall 'A' in ESG assessment for second consecutive year ... "Proactive shared growth"

[Financial News] Kakao Pay received an overall 'A' rating in the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability (KCGS) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) assessment for the second consecutive year.
According to industry sources on the 11th, Kakao Pay earned grades of 'A' in environment (E), 'A+' in social (S), and 'A' in governance (G) in the ESG assessment announced by KCGS. It maintained the same ratings in each category as last year.
KCGS is a specialized organization that conducts research and assessments related to corporate governance and ESG, and provides proxy voting advice to institutional investors and companies in Korea and abroad.
In the environmental category, Kakao Pay was recognized for setting mid- to long-term climate change targets and detailed strategies, and analyzing related risks and opportunities. It received particularly high marks for transparently disclosing the quantitative financial impact on its business operations.
In the social category, the assessment reflected its identification of major risks—including those related to health and safety, human rights, and information security—and implementation of measures to mitigate them. Its operation of a system for regularly assessing and monitoring its supply chain was also taken into account.
In the governance category, Kakao Pay was recognized for its efforts to ensure transparency and accountability, including fairly operating a board-level system for managing the pool of CEO candidates and having its compensation committee approve the compensation system for inside directors.
Kakao Pay CEO Shin Won-geun said, "This is the result of our sincere ESG management efforts over the years being recognized externally," and added, "We will continue to advance our work on climate change response, supply chain management, and stronger governance transparency, while bolstering our ESG competitiveness through transparent information disclosure and proactive shared-growth activities."
Kakao Pay formed an ESG Promotion Committee in 2022 and, in 2023, became the first company in the fintech industry to establish an ESG Committee under its board of directors. It has been included in the DJ BIC (Best in Class) Korea Index for three consecutive years in S&P Global's Corporate Sustainability Assessment. In February this year, it received a Prime rating in the ESG assessment by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the world's largest proxy advisory firm.

[email protected] Kim Tae-il Reporter