Tokyo Financial Award 2021: The Winning Businesses Have Been Chosen

 

As part of our “Global Financial City: Tokyo” Vision 2.0,  the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) is hosting the Tokyo Financial Award. The awa recognizes financial businesses that develop and provide innovative financial products and services that contribute to solving the problems and meeting the needs of the people and businesses in Tokyo, as well as businesses that promote ESG investment.
We are pleased to announce that the award-winning companies have been selected. The Award Ceremony that can be viewed online and is open to everyone.

1 Award-winning Businesses

Financial Innovation Category

Place	Company(location)	Theme	Outline of proposed service
1st	G-Bank technologies OÜ（Estonia）	Service that can manage financial assets collectively, such as bank accounts, insurance, securities, inheritance, etc.	Provides a platform for financial services to improve the lives of international workers in Japan Uses digital banking technology to provide one-stop financial services such as bank account opening and remittance services, which are usually offered in Japanese, in the users’ native languages and contributes to the expansion of financial inclusion of  international residents in Japan
2nd	Caulis Inc.（Japan）	Services to prevent financial crimes, such as strengthened security	Aims to prevent fraudulent bank account opening through identity theft Analyzes the possibility of identity theft by querying the information of the account holders with the electricity transmission information of power company, thereby helping to prevent the opening of bank accounts for the purpose of fraud or money laundering
3rd	Tractable Ltd.（UK）	Simpler procedures for insurance	Shortens time for insurance claim payments for building damage caused by typhoons from several months to several days Automatically calculates the appropriate repair cost by simply photographing damaged areas with a smartphone using an AI solution

 

ESG Investment Category

Company(location)	Outline of initiatives
【The Governor's Special Prize for Green Finance*1】 Daiwa Asset Management Co. Ltd. (Japan)	Established an investment trust, "Carbon Neutral Equity Fund”, as a new form of investment aiming for a carbon-free society Aims to realize a carbon-free society by providing ESG investment opportunities as an investment trust. Established a system to support tree planting activities to grow assets and nurture forests
Nomura Holdings, Inc. (Japan)	Established a system in which producers throughout Japan and chefs in Tokyo can be evaluated by investors and consumers through the sale of digital memberships using blockchain technology based on the concept of "Agriculture" x "Food" x "FinTech" to provide an inflow of funds to agriculture and a new method of financing restaurants(Implemented in collaboration with Nomura Agri Planning & Advisory Co., Ltd., Nomura Farm Hokkaido Co., Ltd. in the Nomura Group, and BOOSTRY Co., Ltd.) Ensures sustainable food production and consumption patterns through the use of non-standard vegetables in production areas, utilization of chefs' knowledge, and enhancement of consumers' food literacy
SBICAP Ventures Limited（India）	Established Neev Funds which are private equity funds focused on investing into the climate and environment SMEs in India.  Backed by global investors such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office of Govt of UK (FCDO) and the State Bank of India (SBI) group, as well as JICA, the funds are ESG- and climate impact-focused and deliver strong financial returns.

*1 The Governor's Special Prize for Green Finance, a new award created this fiscal year, will be awarded to a business from the ESG Investment Category that is particularly outstanding in its green finance initiatives.

2 Regarding Award Ceremony (Planned)

Date and Time

Monday, February 7, 2022 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm (Japan Standard Time)

How to apply

To view the ceremony online, please register via the link (External link) (Applications on the day of the event are accepted)

Program

Japanese-to-English simultaneous interpretation available

• Introduction of the Tokyo Financial Award
• Presentations from awarded companies
• Comment from the chair of the selection committee

Details will be posted at the Tokyo Financial Award website once they are decided:

*The Award Ceremony will be followed by online presentations from 13 companies (excluding the 3 award winners) who passed the preliminary screening of the Tokyo Financial Award Financial Innovation Category from among 88 applicants (scheduled for 3:40 pm - 4:45 pm and held completely online). To view these presentations, please make sure to register via the link above.

3 Selection Committee

	Financial Innovation Category	ESG Investment Category
Committee Chair	YAMAOKA Hiromi Board Director, Future Corporation
Committee Members	OE Kayo President, Office Libertas; Financial Planner
	UCHIYAMA Tomonori Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University	ARAI Masaru Chair, Japan Sustainable Investment Forum
	SAKAMOTO Shinsuke Managing Director, Japan Venture Capital Association	Eva Halvarsson Board member, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)*2
	MASUJIMA Masakazu Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (law firm)	KATO Yasuyuki Adjunct Professor, Kyoto UniversityDirector, Money Design Research InstituteResearch Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University

*2 PRI are the principles advocated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2006 for the purpose of realizing a sustainable society and for institutional investors to incorporate environmental, social and governance issues into investment decision-making as well as the organization to disseminate these principles.

For more information, please visit the Tokyo Financial Award website.

*Please click here for the original Japanese article.