Contributing to the Growth of Local Economies

As a regional financial institution, the Group hopes to achieve a “sustainable virtuous circle” in which the Group also grows by proactively working to resolve regional and social issues and contributing to making the region attractive and revitalizing regional economies.
Based on these policies, we support the implementation of measures to realize the regional vision of the government and are moving forward with initiatives (activities to promote regional strategies) to solve regional and social issues such as “building towns,” “creating human flows,” and “creating jobs.” We are fulfilling our role as a regional hub, expanding the scope of industry-academia-government-finance collaboration, and strengthening our efforts to revitalize local communities and solve their problems.

In June 2024, The Bank of Yokohama concluded an “Agreement on cooperation for the creation of a new green society” with Yokohama City to promote sustainable community building in the area. Our first measure was to use the smartphone app Hamagin 365 to switch to online accounts, which reduced CO2 emissions by going paperless. For the second measure, we supported the promotion of DX by encouraging the use of Business Support Direct, an internet banking service for corporate customers. We contributed to environmental conservation and regional revitalization by making donations to Yokohama City for every switch as part of the first measure and the number of increased contracts under the second measure.

The Bank of Yokohama is developing the Hamagin Environmental Education Program as part of its efforts to promote decarbonization in local communities. In FY2023, Yokohama City Nishimae Elementary School and in FY2024, Atsugi City Morinosato Elementary School and two other schools conducted activities to encourage local communities and households to collect waste cooking oil for use as next generation aviation fuel, SAF*. We will continue to increase the number of participating schools and strengthen public relations activities, aiming to decarbonize the entire region through public-private partnerships.
*SAF: Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

On December 1, 2024, the Bank of Yokohama launched OMOTAN Coin, a digital community currency, in collaboration with Hadano City, finnovalley, and the Hadano Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The coin can be charged by citizens on a special app and can be used at participating stores in the city. Points are awarded according to users’ consumption and participation in local activities, and the regional economy is revitalized through a system of “shared points” and “individual store points.” We will promote economic circulation in the region and contribute to the construction of sustainable local communities, including implementing a reward campaign.

The Bank of Yokohama implemented “Kanagawa Pay,” a cashless consumption stimulus project that it is working on together with Kanagawa Prefecture. (First phase: October 2021, Second phase: July 2022, Third phase: July 2023) This project is an initiative to reward consumers with points equivalent to up to 20% of the amount of QR code payments made through “Kanagawa Pay” when paying at participating merchants in the prefecture. The Bank of Yokohama, as a representative organization of the joint venture, was entrusted by Kanagawa Prefecture with the management of this project and promoted cashless payments as a payment provider that offers the HamaPay smartphone payment service.

The Bank of Yokohama is committed to solving local community issues by strengthening collaboration between industry, academia, government, and finance. Yokohama National University, a national university with which we have concluded a comprehensive collaboration agreement, has appointed Bank of Yokohama employees as “Yokohama National University Industry-Academia-GovernmentFinance Collaboration Coordinators” to serve as a bridge between the university, which conducts research that contributes to solving problems, and corporate customers, who have technical problems to solve. In July 2022, the Bank of Yokohama concluded a comprehensive partnership agreement with Aoyama Gakuin University to accelerate sustainable growth and revitalization of the local economy through industry academiagovernment-finance collaboration. In October of the same year, Bank of Yokohama employees were appointed by Aoyama Gakuin University as “Aoyama Gakuin University Industry-Academia-Government-Finance Collaboration Coordinators”.
Furthermore, in February 2023, we held the “Tokyo Institute of Technology-Bank of Yokohama Collaboration New Technology Matching Meeting” with the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Through these efforts, we are uncovering projects that link industry, academia, government, and finance.