2024 is an important year for China's ESG-related information disclosure to move towards "standardization". Under the unified deployment of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the three major exchanges in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing issued guidelines for the sustainable development of listed companies, and the Ministry of Finance and nine other ministries and commissions issued the "Guidelines for Sustainable Disclosure of Enterprises - Basic Guidelines (Trial)". At the same time, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange issued the "Code of Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting", which put forward further requirements for climate-related disclosures of listed companies in Hong Kong. For financial institutions, 2024 is also an important year for implementing the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference and deeply planning the "five major articles" of finance.

The stricter market information disclosure and regulatory requirements are both a new challenge and a new opportunity for high-quality development for listed companies. Under the new external environment, Oriental Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Oriental Securities"), as an A+H-share listed company, actively learns to benchmark new external regulations and improves sustainable development management capabilities. The "2024 Annual Sustainable Development Report" recently released has shown many highlights in terms of information disclosure, management results, etc.

Comprehensively benchmark against the new regulations and upgrade the disclosure framework

How to make breakthroughs on the basis of existing information disclosure is a new topic for listed companies with rich experience in reporting releases. As the tenth social responsibility-related situation report released by Oriental Securities, it is also the second sustainable development report. Based on the original solid information disclosure, this report comprehensively benchmarks the new regulations of the Shanghai Stock Exchange and responds to the new regulations on climate disclosure of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in advance. It shows forward-lookingness on the basis of high-quality compliance disclosure, and further upgrades the disclosure framework.

A dual importance analysis of ESG issues is considered to be a technical difficulty in implementing the latest disclosure requirements of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In its "2024 Annual Sustainable Development Report", Oriental Securities strictly follows the requirements of the exchange, and conducts topic identification analysis and quantitative evaluation from the two dimensions of "implications of impact" and "financial importance" through on-site interviews, questionnaires, etc., to complete the judgment of the importance of the topic.

Proposing a disclosure framework for four core contents on issues of financial importance is also a major point of the new exchange regulations in 2024. It is considered by the market to be an important measure to improve the usefulness of sustainable development reports information. Based on the dual importance analysis, Oriental Securities disclosed the framework of "Governance-Strategism-Impact, Risk and Opportunity Management-Indicators and Goals" to comprehensively and fully disclose Oriental Securities' related management and practices, and strive to make the report information more useful for the decisions of stakeholders, including investors.

At the same time, Oriental Securities further responded to the new climate disclosure regulations that came into effect from the 2025 fiscal year in advance. On the basis of setting up a special chapter on the disclosure of climate change response information in the previous year, it formed the chapter "Helping 'dual carbon' and seeking green development" in the 2024 annual report, and made new progress in climate-related risks and opportunities identification, scenario analysis, climate-related risk management processes, and explored and strengthened quantitative disclosure of financial impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities, and strived to provide the market with examples of quantitative disclosure of financial impacts.

Actively deepen the layout and do a good job in the "five major articles"

In September 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasized the active development of science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, and strengthen high-quality financial services for major strategies, key areas, and weak links. In February 2025, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Capital Market to Do a Good Job in Finance", promoting financial institutions to implement the deployment requirements of the "Five Great Articles" and entering a new stage.

In the "2024 Annual Sustainable Development Report", Oriental Securities comprehensively disclosed the layout of the "five major articles" in accordance with the regulations, and used numbers and actions to show the work results of Oriental Securities actively assisting the national strategy and serving the real economy. In 2024, in terms of science and technology finance, Oriental Securities coordinated the use of equity, bonds and other means to actively provide full-chain and full-life cycle financial services to technology-based enterprises, underwritten 16.164 billion yuan of technology innovation corporate bonds, and lead the underwriting of 2.38 billion yuan of science and technology innovation bills; in terms of green finance, it is committed to leveraging more financial resources to the green and low-carbon fields through green investment and financing, carbon finance, green research and other businesses, and underwriting 9.028 billion yuan of green corporate bonds and financial bonds, as of 2024 At the end of the year, we invested 5.798 billion yuan in green bonds; in terms of inclusive finance, we promoted more financial resources to support small and medium-sized enterprises, and underwrote a total of 2.633 billion yuan in small and micro financial bonds, small and micro asset-backed securities, and private enterprise bonds; in terms of pension finance, we provided one-stop, customized, professional and diversified personal pension allocation services, with more than 50,000 individual pension accounts opening; in terms of digital finance, we actively improved customer financial service experience through digital transformation, and the actual annual IT investment was 964 million yuan.

From rich investment and financing project cases to outstanding digital performance, Oriental Securities strictly implements relevant national strategic plans, adheres to the original intention of "financial service to the country and finance for the people", actively builds the distinctive capabilities of science and technology investment banks and energy investment banks, continuously improves the capabilities of inclusive finance and elderly care financial services, and tilts financial services and business resources to key areas, and continues to contribute the "Oriental" strength to do a good job in the "five major articles" of finance and serves the high-quality development of my country's economy.

Steadily implement the plan and steadily advance the goals

The formulation of a sustainable development plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period is an important manifestation of Oriental Securities' systematic incorporating sustainable development into its overall strategic layout. 2025 is the year when Oriental Securities' sustainable development plan is concluded. The report compares the sustainable development goals in the four major areas of governance, economy, environment and society, and comprehensively sorts out and discloses the progress of the plan implementation. The report shows that between 2021 and 2024, Oriental Securities has guided over 470 billion yuan of funds into the field of sustainable development, with an average annual growth rate of sustainable investment and financing scale exceeding 10%. The group invested 114.03 million yuan in public welfare funds in the social field; compared with the base year 2021, the total greenhouse gas emissions of the parent company in scope 1 and scope 2 decreased by 3,263.72 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The Orient Securities Sustainable Development Plan was released in 2021. It is the first securities company to release a systematic sustainable development plan. It covers four aspects: governance, economy, environment and society. It involves the three dimensions of the company's own operations, business development, and brand culture construction. It sets quantitative goals for sustainable finance, demonstrating the company's firm determination to truly integrate sustainable development into the company's business. Over the past four years, Oriental Securities has disclosed the progress of the implementation of the plan in its report every year, vividly interpreting how the Sustainable Development Goals lead corporate actions, and also exploring effective experience in formulating sustainable development plans for the industry.

Oriental Securities' long-term investment in ESG and sustainable development has been continuously recognized by external authoritative institutions. In 2024, Oriental Securities' MSCI ESG rating remained AA, ranking among the top 24% of global peers; S&P CSA scores significantly exceeded the industry average score and were selected as the "S&P Global Sustainable Development Yearbook (China Version) 2024"; Hang Seng A-share Sustainable Development Index was evaluated and was included in the Hang Seng Sustainable Development Enterprise Series Index for four consecutive years; Wind ESG rating was upgraded from A to AA, which is currently the highest rating in the industry; it was successfully selected as CCTV's "China ESG Listed Companies Yangtze River Delta Pioneer 50" list and "China ESG Listed Companies Financial Industry Pioneer 30" list, and won the highest "four and a half rating" of securities companies.

With the deepening of the concept of sustainable development and the rapid development of the regulatory environment, sustainable development reports have become an important carrier for listed companies to speak with data and actions. Securities companies must first take solid management actions to achieve high-quality information disclosure and outstanding performance results. Oriental Securities stated that it will accelerate reform, development and innovation practices in important areas, important tasks, and important pilot projects, adhere to the bridge connecting industry and funds, give full play to financial power to serve enterprises, strive to take the path of building a first-class modern investment bank, and serve Chinese-style modernization construction and high-quality economic and social development.

[Editor in charge: Lu Xinru PF213]