In 1H of 2023, the banking industry continued to experience rising interest rates as it did in 2022. Inflation was being mitigated but persisted in major economies. Global interest rates remained high. In such an environment, financial crises such as the collapse of the US Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the merger and acquisition of Credit Suisse and defaults by Chinese real estate enterprises, have emerged in 2023. Also, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War and other geopolitical conflicts, such as the Israel-Gaza military operation, which triggered the Red Sea crisis, as well as the continuing impact of the US-China Trade War, caused volatility in financial markets. Since 2022, in order to suppress inflation, the US Federal Reserve has risen the interest rate by a cumulative 5.25%, while the Central Bank of Taiwan has risen the rate by 0.75% cumulatively. Meanwhile, given the expanding interest spread between Taiwan and the United States, the drastic increase in local banks’ foreign currency deposits has resulted in increased fund costs quarter by quarter. Notwithstanding, the growth of international loan business became sluggish due to the increasing interest rates and uncertainty in demand. As a result, local banks’ growth of net interest income was limited. Fortunately, in 2023, the recovering capital market and domestic private consumption drove a significant increase in fee income from wealth management, credit card transactions, and gains from foreign exchange and investment transactions. Therefore, the banking industry’s overall earnings indicated a trend of growth.

  Looking forward to 2024, major research and survey institutions all expect that global economic growth will continue to be sluggish. In particular, the ongoing geopolitical conflicts and forthcoming presidential elections in multiple economies are likely to bring uncertainty to global financial markets. Additionally, the strategic competition between China and the United States is causing rising international trade protectionism and regionalization of supply chains, which directly affects Taiwan’s economic and trading performance. The US Fed’s “Higher for Longer” policy of 2H 2023 shows that the high interest rate will be maintained for a longer period and that consumer demand might be suppressed accordingly. Notwithstanding this, domestically, given the continued expansion of emerging technological applications, supply chain inventories have been recovering to normal levels, export momentum growing, and the ongoing boom in private consumption, investment and tourism markets, all put a focus on driving the growth in loans, wealth management and credit card consumption for local banks. Generally, this environment benefits local banks’ business development.

  In terms of FinTech and digital finance, the development of AI and related applications became more mature in 2023. In August 2023, the FSC released the “FinTech Development Roadmap 2.0” in order to provide the financial industry with guidance and policies for the application of AI. Certain local banks also started to research the possibilities for application of generative AI to customer services, wealth management and credit review. Nonetheless, the details of AI-related accountability, transparency and interpretability still need to be clarified. It remains to be seen how such developments may affect the banking industry in the future.

  In terms of the sustainable development issue, the FSC released Green Finance Action Plan 3.0 in September 2022, and organized its first sustainable finance evaluation in 2023, aiming to improve the financial industry’s responses to and control over ESG and climate-related risks and business opportunities. For this reason, peers in the financial industry are inevitably tending to focus on related risks more proactively, strengthening their responsive ability and improving their resilience, thus exercising the financial industry’s influence to guide consumers, investors and wider industry to partake in sustainable development jointly.

• (1) In order to improve sustainable development efforts, the Bank established the “Sustainable Development Committee” in January 2023, which is dedicated to promotion of matters related to the Bank’s corporate sustainable development.
• (2) To improve the functioning of management, in August 2023, the Bank abolished the Personal Loan Dept. and Personal Loan Credit Dept. and consolidated the relevant functions and operations into the Consumer Banking Dept. and the Consumer Credit Dept.
• (3) The FSC agreed on August 29, 2023, that the Bank may provide financial instruments and services applicable to high-asset customers. The Bank added the Private Banking Dept and Financial Products Dept., as well as related functions, subordinated to the Personal Financial Services Division in November 2023, in order to promote related business and effectively integrate product strategies.

  In 2023, the Bank focused on controlling risk while at the same time putting its best effort into proactively pursuing business growth, in order to improve long-term profitability. When dealing with the loan business, the Bank has targeted high-end large-scale corporate clients and high-end, personal clients as its major customer base. At the same time, the Bank strengthened the momentum of new cases for interbank loans and credit loans to pursue the stable development of scale and asset quality. The number of wealth management service customers and the level of AUM have continued to grow. The Bank has also obtained the Wealth Management 2.0 license, so continued growth of services for high-asset customers may be expected. In terms of customer services, the Bank continued to promote data-driven decision making. By analyzing the tracks and data regarding customer transactions, the Bank has been able to deploy marketing resources precisely, offering customers integrated marketing programs across products. The Bank has also launched theme-based marketing programs, which vary depending on the customer base, in order to strengthen the relationship and loyalty between customers and the Bank.

  For the asset quality, until the end of December 2023, the non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, NPL coverage ratio and loan coverage ratio were 0.05%, 2,519.46% and 1.32%, respectively, which continued to be the excellent ones in the industry. The changes in the main business volume are stated as following:

  The Bank has remained committed to customer service, product innovation and promotion of financial sustainability for the long term. The awards and honors received by the Bank from various professional organizations in 2023 are stated as follows:

  The Bank’s net income amounted to NT$23.655 billion in 2023, increasing by NT$2,905 million from NT$20.750 billion in 2022. Of which:

• Net interest income amounted to NT$14.452 billion, increasing by NT$172 million from 2022, primarily as a result of external interest rate increases and expansion of assets.
• Net income other than the net interest income amounted to NT$9.203 billion, increasing by NT$2.733 billion from 2022, primarily as a result of the increase in the net income from service charges for wealth management, loan and credit card operations, increased revenue from foreign exchange due to the expanding interest spread between Taiwan and the United States, and the increase in dividends revenue from equity investment.
• Bad debt expenses amounted to NT$303 million, decreasing by NT$59 million from 2022. Operating expenses amounted to NT$12.604 billion, increasing by NT$1,078 million from 2022.
• In conclusion, in 2023, the Bank’s net profit before tax amounted to NT$10.748 billion, and net profit after tax was NT$8.657 billion, an increase of NT$1,369 million from 2022. The budget achievement rate was 96%.

• Established the AML customer due diligence (CDD) e-signature integration platform to process cases subject to the CDD by RM or suspected to involve suspicious transactions via batch processing to replace manual searching for and printing of related customer data and transaction details, thereby streamlining branch operating procedures.
• Continue to implement the “Open Data,” review and adjust the customer risk factor scores and transaction monitoring type scenario parameters to improve the anti-money laundering system’s functioning and operational performance. Also, sole proprietorship whose registered business items include “third party payment” is added to the core system’s industry types.
• Add global bond webpage and online bond purchase services in online banking to improve the proprietary trading of bonds, so that customers may search for the information about foreign bonds via the Bank’s global bond webpage and execute e-trading service functions for automatic order placement.
• Launched the “e-Order Placement for Mutual Funds” service, which enables customers to apply for multiple financial products without repeating the same procedures, and add new functions, such as the barometer for market outlook and product-themed packages, to improve the overall user experience.
• In response to the discontinued support for the Oracle database version, the Front-End Processor (FEP) database has been upgraded to a subsequent version in order to maintain support from the OEM. The system is also upgraded to the local active-active framework to enhance the capacity of continuous business operations.
• In order to improve the detection of any abnormal activities in the Bank’s endpoint device system, the Bank has implemented a comprehensive Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) program. Through real-time endpoint monitoring, smart analysis, and automatic blocking, the defense function activates immediately upon discovery of any sign of abnormal behavior, to mitigate possible information security risks.
• In order to provide customers with an integrated experience, the Bank worked with Yuanta Securities Investment Trust to launch an online service for “Opening of Both Bank and Investment Trust Accounts,” which may save customers from completing forms and uploading certificates repeatedly, so as to significantly reduce the time spent by clients on account opening procedures.
• The Bank completed cooperation with 7 major e-payment organizations and took the initiative to respond to the “TWQR” specifications of Financial Information Service Co., Ltd. to launch the upgraded “Payment Pass” service, which needs just one QR Code to enable collection/payment services across electronic payment institutions and borders, thereby providing convenience to both merchants and consumers.
• To reform the customer identity verification mechanism and facilitate its use by customers, Yuanta FIDO service went live in Q3 of 2023. Customers may now access their asset details recorded by “Yuanta Bank, Yuanta Securities, Yuanta Life, Yuanta Futures and Yuanta Securities Investment” on platforms including “Yuanta Bank Mobile Bank, Yuanta Securities Mr. Yuanta, Yuanta Life iCare and Yuanta Securities Investment Trust Mr. Yuanta Fund” via registered mobile devices. This service provides an innovative experience, exclusive to Yuanta customers.

  The market expects that the rising rate cycle is about to end. Notwithstanding this, the cost of funds will remain high in the near future. The banking industry’s short-term development will still suffer from the impact posed by the high interest rate environment, which might be detrimental to the increase of local banks’ net interest income. Profits from foreign exchange swaps are decreasing due to the shrinkage of market demand. Therefore, it appears that it will be increasingly difficult for foreign exchange swaps to contribute significant profit for banks, compared to 2023. Nonetheless, as inventories recover to normal levels and private consumption continues to boom, services including consumer banking, corporate banking and wealth management are full of opportunities and momentum. Generally, the Bank is cautiously optimistic regarding business growth. On the other hand, the competent authorities and the public are paying close attention to digital finance and sustainable development issues, including applications of AI, charitable trust, implementation of corporate governance, development of inclusive and green finance, etc. These are all are directions which local banks are focusing on. While pursuing growth, the banking industry also shares its gains with the wider society.

  Impacts on the Company posed by changes in important regulatory policies and laws & regulations, and corresponding countermeasures to such changes, are stated as follows:

• Integrate the Group’s resources to promote wealth management services for high-asset customers:

  The FSC announced in July 2020 that the Wealth Management 2.0 program would be launched, which allows banks to provide 8 specific kinds of financial instruments or services to high-net-worth clients with assets valued more than one hundred million NT dollars in order to improve the banks’ international competitiveness in the field of wealth management and also provide these customers with a more diversified, rapid and convenient experience. By the end of July 2023, FSC had approved a total of 9 banks to offer these services, and more than NT$750 billion worth of assets are under management.

  Upon receipt of approval from the competent authority in August 2023, the Bank became the tenth bank to be granted the license to provide such products and services to high-asset customers. To drive growth in business transactions, the Bank set up Private Banking Dept. and Wealth Management Product Dept., both subordinated to Wealth Management Division, to engage in planning independent business strategies for high-asset customers and also provide exclusive services such as taxation inquiries and investment seminars, to satisfy customers’ needs. Meanwhile, the Bank will integrate Yuanta Group’s resources to provide more diversified services and financial instruments, and to improve the development and expand the market share of the Bank’s wealth management business.

• In response to FSC’s regulatory measures on protection of wealth management customers’ interests and rights, the Bank has adjusted its operating procedures for selling investment-linked insurance products:

  In order to prevent policyholders from bearing excessive risk, the FSC amended the regulations governing investment-linked insurance products in 2023. Regarding investment objects that are linked to an insurance product, the FSC completely prohibits leveraged and inverse ETFs, and also strictly restricts investment in high yield bond funds and emerging market bond funds. Additionally, the review and solicitation of investment-linked insurance products are subject to strict supervision by the competent authority, including whether information disclosure is implemented and whether suitability assessments between customers and products are conducted. The FSC will rigorously scrutinize these aspects.

  In response, since April 2023, the Bank has gradually amended its internal control measures in accordance with the competent authority’s requirements, including adjustment of the procedure for assessing the investment risk attributes for customers. The Bank not only prohibits the personnel in charge of business solicitation from conducting the assessment, but also requires that customer suitability evaluation and solicitation for investment-linked insurance products shall be conducted based on the Bank’s customer investment suitability results, and upon the customer’s completion of the assessment of insurance companies. Additionally, to comply with restrictions on investment objects that are linked to insurance products, the bank collaborates with insurance companies to adjust products and update promotional materials. Furthermore, by executing a closed-loop management mechanism, the Bank manages the sales representatives’ solicitations centrally to ensure that the sales system functions effectively to identify suitability between customers and products.

• Implement corporate governance and accountability, and complete the responsibility map design by the end of 2024:

  In order to strengthen the local banks’ corporate governance and improve senior management’s accountability, the FSC entrusted the Bankers Association of the Republic of China to research self-discipline regulations of the “responsibility map.” This covers senior management team members that have the power to make decisions on business or management, including the chairman, the president and vice presidents, etc. Banks shall assign these functions to senior managers, let them verify the responsibilities to be borne, and sign the statement of responsibilities, as well as define internal management responsibilities and a framework expressly based on the responsibility map. The board of directors shall supervise the execution of this system through various committees. Banks shall complete the corresponding establishments by the end of December 2024, and start to implement them from January 2025.

  In response to the new regulations, the Bank has convened meetings to determine its policy direction, and conducted checks of senior managers’ functions and responsibilities through internal research and HR teams. The business management team is engaged in planning the adjustment of regulations & rules and interdepartmental coordination to ensure that these accountability policies are implemented by the end of 2024, and to strengthen the spirit of accountability from top to bottom, throughout the Bank, to help all staff uphold a prudent attitude in performing their duties.

• In response to the Executive Yuan’s fraud prevention policy, the Bank identifies crimes through employee diligence with the aid of technology:

  According to the statistics generated by National Police Agency, since 2017, there have been about 22,000 to 23,000 fraud cases in Taiwan each year, and the number of cases is growing. In 2022, it soared to around 30,000 cases. In order to protect people’s property from fraud and make every endeavor to prevent fraud cases, the Executive Yuan launched its anti-fraud policy in 2022, and upgraded it to version 1.5 in 2023. Considering that 90% of fraud cases involve cash flows through financial institutions, the financial industry’s top priority has been shifted from anti-terrorism to anti-fraud in recent years.

  To deal with rapidly changing techniques and increasing fraud cases, the Bank has its branch tellers tighten the KYC inspection when processing customer applications for international remittance over the counter so as to proactively identify and prevent fraud. In 2022, the Bank blocked a total of 350 fraud cases, cumulatively amounting to NT$190 million. The Bank was honored by Executive Yuan accordingly. In 2023, the Bank successfully blocked 537 fraud cases, amounting to NT$320 million, growing by 68% from the same period of the previous year , and elderly customers accounted for 30%. This shows that the Bank has achieved remarkable results in guarding against fraud cases. Additionally, the Bank has enacted a policy to change the effective date of the application for designated transfer to any other holder’s account to be “next two days,” and worked with the National Police Agency to establish the “Early Warning Mechanism for Detection of Suspicious Fraud in Offshore Financial Accounts” to verify whether the remitter or beneficiary are in a list of scammers, to prevent clients’ defrauded funds from being remitted overseas. The Bank has also, in October 2023, joined the Criminal Investigation Bureau to form the “Eagle Eye Fraud Identification Alliance” alongside 32 other local banks, and implement AI technology to establish a model that enhance the detection and prevention of abnormal transactions. In the future, the Bank will continue to make effective use of technology to assist in preventing fraud via dummy accounts, and regularly check and adjust the “suspected illegal or obviously abnormal transactions” system to prevent fraud.

  In 2024, the Bank will continue to implement risk controls, compliance and internal controls, focus on adjustment and upgrading of income structure, and adequately plan business volume to improve capital utilization efficiency. Meanwhile, the Bank will make its best efforts to enhance digital transformation, maximize profitability via robust management, and take tangible action to promote sustainable development to fulfill the financial industry’s social responsibilities. The business plan is summarized as follows:

• Business Development

  • Corporate banking services: While carefully controlling for risk, the Bank will develop business with corporates and their upstream/downstream enterprises in promising industries, cater to domestic corporate customers that have better credit ratings, and strive to become the arranger of syndicated loans in order to stably expand the scale of loans. Meanwhile, the Bank will aim to improve the deposit business based on NTD/foreign currency demand deposit projects and by promoting trade finance, payroll account or collection agency services, in order to become the major bank where customers deposit and allocate their funds, to improve the relationship with clients and to improve the rate of return.
  • Consumer banking services: In terms of personal loans, the Bank will strengthen the diversification and cross-selling of products to increase income. Home loan services will continue to develop high-quality customers in metropolitan areas, and undertake more refinancing cases and financial home loans. Regarding credit loan services, the Bank leverages telemarketing and branches to be the major channels. In addition to the existing high-quality customers, large-scale enterprises’ employees and professionals, the Bank will expand its customer base while maintaining rigorous loan reviews. In respect to car loan services, the Bank will continue to strengthen its relationship with new car loan business partners and improve the car financing business, as well as proactively develop foreign car loans and other cross-selling business opportunities for car loan customers. As for credit card services, the Bank will simplify the promotional activities by integrating bonus points and member’s day throughout the Bank in order to attract new customers and maintain relationships with existing ones. Meanwhile, the Bank will make use of e-billing, mobile banking services and social media to promote more services, to improve the penetration of the Bank’s different products.
  • Wealth management services: The Bank focuses on the three major products, which are insurance, funds and bonds, and verifies the changes in financial markets to provide customers with useful advice on investment. The client relationship management aims to provide a range of customer bases with exclusive rights, and deepen the relationship with customers via membership and upgrade programs. As for high-asset wealth management services, the Bank has senior wealth management personnel to help plan asset allocation, and the expert team from the head office will provide exclusive services including planning of taxation, investment, insurance and asset legacy, etc. for its private banking clients.
  • Financial trading services: Improve capital allocation and management, stabilize investment-related income, expand the scale of bill underwriting business, and strengthen the expansion of business including TMU and proprietary trading of bonds, in order to expand sources of income.
  • Digital financial services: To improve the quality of customer service and overall experience, the Bank launches brand-new mobile bank applications, including the “Payment Pass Personal Bank” and “Payment Pass Business Network.” Meanwhile, data analysis will be used to promote and integrate digital marketing throughout the Bank, accurately promote customer interaction and contribution, and achieve the objectives of customer acquisition, engagement, and retention.

• Internal Control

  • Comply with external laws and regulations, and continue to strengthen the integrity of operating procedures with regard to anti-money laundering, information security, personal data protection, corporate governance, consumer protection, friendly financial culture and service measures. Conduct case studies on peer institutions that have been penalized and advocate for proper handling practices to strengthen employees' compliance awareness.
  • Collaborate with law enforcement agencies, focusing on branch front-line staff training and digital infrastructure, with aid from emerging technologies such as AI for detection, applied in preventing money laundering, corruption and fraud in order to improve the accuracy of detection and reduce manual processing time.
  • Regarding compliance with the AML/CTF issues, the Bank will integrate practical operational needs and continuously adjust system functionalities and transaction monitoring mechanisms. Additionally, automated processes such as data matching and querying will be implemented to enhance operational efficiency.
  • Closely monitor and adjust the risk ranking and credit quality analysis of home loans, car loans, credit loans, credit cards and cash cards, along with scorecard model and risk analysis statements to demonstrate the performance in monitoring and management of assets. Utilize the new credit loan application model to expand business and increase income while maintaining risk control, continuously optimizing processes to accurately identify characteristics of defaulting customers.
  • Improve the risk control, compliance risk assessment and internal audit/internal control management mechanism of overseas branches and subsidiaries.

• Personnel Training

  • Improve new employees’ recognition of the Bank’s organizational culture through training courses, thus enhancing their work participation and stability. In response to long-term business development, the Bank, pursuant to employee career planning, trains them to learn related professional functions, and conducts the training of managerial functions and successor development programs for high-potential senior business personnel, laying a solid foundation for its sustainable development.
  • Actively organize internal educational training programs and collaborate with external training institutions to enhance employees’ expertise, skills in digital technology and foreign language proficiency. The Bank has also established the English language proficiency test and international professional certificate/license reward system to encourage the employees’ self-growth, thereby enriching the Bank’s talent pool, laying the foundation of the Bank’s digital transformation, bilingual branch development, and overseas business expansion.

  As one of the “Sustainable Finance Pioneers Alliance” members, Yuanta FHC promises to take more proactive actions on the five major issues, including “Green Procurement,” “Investment, Financing and Engagement,” “Information Disclosure,” “Assistance and Promotion” and “Be in line with Global Standards.” Meanwhile, the Bank, based on the United Nations SDGs as its roadmap, integrates the concept of ESG into its enterprise culture and business strategies, promoting sustainability in five aspects, including corporate governance, customer rights, employee care, environmental sustainability and social welfare. Furthermore, the Group sets the short, medium, and long-term sustainable performance indicators as guidelines for compliance and review, aiming to become an international benchmark for sustainability.

  The Bank follows the Group’s commitment to sustainable development, and also adheres to its management principles stressing “Ethics, Stability, Service, Innovation and Care.” Led by the Board of Directors, the Bank implements corporate governance, compliance and risk control mechanism from top to bottom. In addition to establishing various internal control regulations and enhancing products and services, the Bank has also implemented corporate governance supervisors, audit committee email addresses, whistleblowing channels, and employee suggestion boxes. The Bank regularly evaluates the performance of the Board of Directors and functional committees, signs and discloses institutional investors’ stewardship information, and discloses the diversity and independence of the Board of Directors and functional committees’ operations and whistleblower policy implementation status in the annual report. Accordingly, the Bank received the distinguished certificate of “CG6013 (2021) Corporate Governance System Evaluation” (valid for two years) by the Taiwan Corporate Governance Association in 2022. Meanwhile, the Bank was recognized and included by TWSE in the “List of Best Disclosures of the Institutional Investors’ Stewardship Information” in 2023.

  In 2024, the corporate governance plan will continue to follow the FSC’s “Corporate Governance 3.0 – Sustainable Development Roadmap” and “Sustainable Development Action Program”, take into account the suggestions from the CG6013 (2021) Corporate Governance System Evaluation Report, and continue optimizing the functions and independence of the board of directors and the Audit Committee, ensuring the accountability of the board. The Bank will also regularly assess the independence and competence of appointed CPAs based on the Audit Quality Indicator (AQI), plan diversified director training programs, increase the level of diversity in director skills, gender and age, improve support for board members, upload Chinese and English annual reports simultaneously, announce the annual financial statements audited by CPAs within 60 days after the end of each fiscal year, participate in external corporate governance evaluation, improve corporate governance information disclosure transparency on the official website or in annual reports, and establish the responsibility map system, all aimed at improving and building a more comprehensive corporate governance system.

  The Bank has officially joined the Equator Principles Association and has signed the “Equator Principles” since October 2020, thus becoming the 7th Equator bank in Taiwan. This move aimed to build a project financing credit system that aligns with international standards. Based on the principled framework, the Bank integrated the Group’s spirit of “Sustainable Finance Guidelines” into credit business planning. Furthermore, the Bank has proactively engaged in issuance of or investment in green/ESG bonds, credit card carbon footprint reduction, promoting green building mortgages and eco-friendly car loans, as well as offering ESG-related funds and insurance products. It also promotes green actions such as using 100% green energy in branches and energy conservation. The Bank is committed to various sustainable development projects about responsible investment, fair customer treatment, and social care, including providing financially disadvantaged groups with wealth management education, working with key partners to support rural children and disadvantaged groups.

  In terms of financial product and service innovation, the Bank continuously optimizes its digital platforms and provides innovative services. Meanwhile, the Bank received the ISO 14067 product carbon footprint standard certification from the BSI through implementation of the mobile bank carbon footprint assessment function, which made it ahead of other peers in the same industry. The Bank launched the innovative “Diamond Carbon – Carbon Account” , allowing customers to check their monthly carbon reduction achievements via Yuanta Mobile Banking App, and also leveraged the Redeemed Gift for Supporting Carbon Reduction program to encourage customers to jointly engage in the promotion of green financial services.

  In response to the “Guidelines on Climate-related Financial Disclosures by Banks” issued by the FSC, the Bank released its first TCFD report in 2023, disclosing the Bank’s management performance and implementation in terms of climate-related governance, risk management, strategies, and objectives. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors has authorized the Bank’s risk appetite regarding climate change and climate risk value for the first time, to guide the investment and financing business in supporting the development of low-carbon economy and mitigate the risk exposure of climate-sensitive industries. The Bank also follows the Sustainable Finance Guidelines of Yuanta FHC as the ultimate framework and guidance for the development of financial instruments and services, in order to demonstrate its support for the transformation to a low-carbon economy through practical actions. Additionally, the Bank has also established a working group dedicated to financial carbon emissions in investment and financing portfolios (Scope 3) to explore ways to leverage the funds and resources of the banking industry through setting carbon reduction goals so as to guide customers to move together towards the low-carbon direction.

  In order to integrate the Bank’s efforts in sustainable development, the “Sustainable Development Committee” was established in January 2023 as a dedicated organization. Adhering to Yuanta FHC’s commitment to the five major topics for sustainable finance, the Bank combined all of its efforts in promoting the execution and implementation of related affairs, and thus received strong recognition in the first sustainable development evaluation, ranking in the top 20%. In the future, the Bank will continue to take more proactive actions, starting from itself and working with customers and partners to move towards sustainability.