THE CHAIRMAN
2022 was a year marked by changes and challenges. Although the geopolitical situations around the world continued to fluctuate and effects from the COVID-19 pandemic lingered along with inflationary pressure and international financial market volatility, CTBC Holding was able to maintain sound profits through the collective effort of everyone in our group. The Company posted after-tax net income of NT$31.3 billion and pre-tax profit of NT$47.4 billion. If excluding losses from epidemic prevention insurance claims, our pre-tax profit grew 10% from 2021, indicating robust profitability and growth.
Critically, we also excelled in ESG performance in 2022. Guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), CTBC Holding has set a sustainability strategy comprising the three pillars of Responsible Operations, Sustainable Growth, and A Connected Society. The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2023 includes failure to mitigate climate change, failure of climate-change adaption, and biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse among the top 10 most serious risks worldwide. As such, CTBC Holding continues to participate in international initiatives and, in early 2022, formally included net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of the group's sustainable development roadmap. We also submitted the group's midterm reduction targets to the Science Based Targets initiative in late 2022. In addition, CTBC Holding became the first Taiwanese enterprise to join the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), using our climate risk management skills to help formulate a disclosure framework. Moreover, we have joined the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF) to undertake in-depth evaluation of our investment and financing activities' risks and opportunities associated with nature and biodiversity.
In addition, to promote balanced social development, CTBC Holding has continued to focus our resources on five focal areas of welfare, namely charity, antidrug awareness, sports, education, and arts and culture. For example, the Light Up A Life charity fundraiser started by our founder, Jeffrey Koo Sr., has now been held for 38 consecutive years. As of the end of the 37th edition, it had cumulatively raised more than NT$2.5 billion, which has gone to help over 620,000 children. Our anti-drug education efforts have reached over 910,000 visit, and we sponsor the New Taipei CTBC DEA basketball team to conduct anti-drug advocacy through sports. The CTBC Brothers baseball team, meanwhile, won the championship of Taiwan's major league competition―the Chinese Professional Baseball League― for the second consecutive year in 2022, further expanding the potential impact of our sports-based welfare efforts. In education, the CTBC Business School, founded with the mission of helping deserving and underprivileged students, has become an important talent pool for Taiwan's financial industry. In the arts and culture sphere, the CTBC Arts Festival is continuing to facilitate artistic and cultural exchanges in Taiwan and abroad, while the Dreams Initiatives Project have provided an education in arts and culture to over 2,400 students in rural areas.
Moving forward, CTBC Holding will continue to uphold our "We are family" brand spirit and to integrate sustainability into our decision-making and innovation. In addition to providing products and services that meet the needs of people of all ages, we will persist in creating a living environment that promotes prosperity and inclusion for generations to come.
Chairman
Wen-Long Yen
