Basic Thoughts on Community Investment

Monex Group Policy on Community Investment

Monex Group conducts community investment and social contribution activities to contribute to the sustainable development of the communities to which each  global business locations belongs.

 

Through these activities, Monex Group aims to fulfill its corporate philosophy of "Enabling individuals to achieve self-fulfillment and optimizing their lifetime balance sheets," primarily through the human and financial capital investment in the relevant focus areas of (1) Financial Education, (2) Local Community Investment, and (3) Individual Wellbeing.

What is “Community Investment”?

Investment activities aimed at revitalizing or resolving issues in local or other type of communities to which the company belongs. 

Focus Areas and Relationship to Our Business

1. Financial Education
Our group utilizes the knowledge and expertise we have cultivated in our core financial business to conduct a wide range of financial education activities for young people and the general public. We also aim to contribute to the improvement of individual financial literacy in Japan and help promote the “shift from savings to investments."

 

2. Local Community Investment
Each of our business segments has local offices with specialized functions in various regions. We aim to coexist and prosper with the local communities in which these group offices are located by contributing to the sustainable development of each community through job creation, human resource development, donations to local organizations, and other activities.

 

3. Individual Wellbeing

We believe that efforts to improve the wellbeing of our stakeholders and society as a whole are an important element of the "lifetime balance sheet optimization" that is part of our corporate philosophy, and are essential to the healthy operation of our business.

 

 

Total Amount of Donations/Community Investments to Accredited Non-profit Organizations

Note: In units of ¥10k. Excluding political donations. Personnel expenses not calculated.

FYE March 2020 FYE March 2021 FYE March 2022 FYE March 2023
Japan Segment 1,346 263 316 497
US Segment 0 193 175 813
Others 0 0 0 0
Total 1,346 457 491 1,309

 

 

Initiatives on Respective Focus Area of Our Community Investment

1. Initiatives on Financial Education

1. Japan Segment

Monex, Inc. has been conducting financial education activities aimed at improving the financial literacy of individuals in society at large; in October 2022, we gave a special class to approximately 240 first-year high school students in Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture. In addition, since 2014, we have also been offering a donation course four times a month at Aoyama Gakuin University's Graduate School of Business and Management (MBA), with a cumulative total of approximately 756 students having taken the course (as of the end of 2022).

2. US Segment

TradeStation donated $50,000 to the Miami Dade College Foundation, Inc. in support of Miami Dade College’s Student Managed Investment Fund (“SMIF”), in July 2022. SMIF is student-led, providing hands-on experience running an investment fund with real assets through TradeStation's digital asset platform, and any investment returns generated by the SMIF also help support scholarships for student.

 

In April 2022, TradeStation honors Miami city's vision, " THE WORLD’S CAPITAL OF CRYPTO" , and to support the latest fintech technologies emerging around the world, including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the decentralized finance, TradeStation presented an 11-foot, 3,000-pound bronze statue, "Miami Bull," to Miami. Miami Bull is currently located at MDC's Wolfson Campus.For more information, please visit this link.

 

3. Crypto Asset Segment

Starting in 2021, Coincheck began a research project at Keio University's Global Research Institute to promote understanding of the development of the crypto asset industry and the social significance of crypto assets, and is giving lectures on blockchain, NFT, Web3, and other topics to the next generation of university students.

2. Initiatives on Local Community Investment

Basic Policy on Local Hiring

The Group aims to coexist and prosper with local communities by actively hiring locally at each business location and contributing to the sustainable development of local communities through job creation and human resource development.

1. Hachinohe Office in Aomori prefecture (Monex, Inc.)

Since the Hachinohe Contact center was launched, we have mainly hired local staff and currently, 50 operators in total carefully handle 1,300 inquiries on average a day. The center has a clerical work center on the property, where about 50 employees are engaged in paperwork related to Monex’s account registration.

 

In addition, the Hachinohe Office performs a key role in developing the company’s human resources by providing new recruits hired in Tokyo with a place to learn practical securities business, including contact center operations
 

2. Costa Rica Office (TradeStation):

TradeStation is hiring locally in Costa Rica, primarily for a Systems Development Engineer to develop systems for TradeStation's various award-winning trading platforms.

3. Initiatives on Individual Wellbeing

In line with our corporate philosophy, "enable individuals to achieve self-fulfillment and to optimize their lifetime balance sheets," Monex Group is engaged in various initiatives to support the improvement of individual wellbeing.

 

Monex, Inc. has been making donations to victims of natural disasters in Japan or to the Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Relief Fund through the Japanese Red Cross Society. Monex, Inc. will continue to donate relief funds with the guiding principle of improving the wellbeing of individuals.

 

TradeStation supports the Greenwood Project, an educational program for Black and Latino students living in the Chicago office area, by hiring local students as interns and making donations to the program. TradeStation also posts job openings on the Black Professionals Network, a non-profit organization that provides employment assistance to blacks, thereby supporting the employment of underprivileged youth in the United States (URLhttps://www.greenwoodproject.org/).

 

Furthermore, TradeStation supports Overtown Youth Center*1 and Breakthrough Miami*2, which provide investment education opportunities for underprivileged children. TradeStation also sponsored the Pierre Toussaint Leadership and Learning Center*3 provides IT and investment education in the Little Haiti area.

 

*1 Overtown Youth Center (OYC) provides a comprehensive educational program for promising youth in kindergarten through age 25 and their families in South Florida. OYC supports their personal growth through learning and strengthen family wellness.

*2 Breakthrough Miami provides an excellent educational opportunity for the next generation motivated, under-resourced 5th – 12th grade students through a learning program that uses a “student-teaching-students” model. For more information, please visit this link.

*3 Pierre Toussaint Leadership and Learning Center (PTLLC) has served as a spiritual hub that provides educational, social, and relief services to the Haitian Community in Miami and Haiti for the past 39 years. Today, PTLLC offers literacy program, after-school/summer programs for ages 5-14, day care services for children, technology lab, and more. For more information, please visit this link

 

 

Creation of Opportunities for Employees to Contribute to Society

Volunteer Support Program (Japan Segment)

Monex Group, Inc. and Monex, Inc. have a volunteer support program for employees of both companies with the aim of supporting employee participation in volunteer activities. Under this program, employees can use up to five days of special leave or annual paid leave for volunteer purposes. In addition, in order to raise awareness among a wide range of employees through this program, users of the program are required to prepare a report during their volunteer period that is made available to all executives and employees.

Volunteer Activities (Japan Segment)

Japan Segment regularly organizes volunteer opportunities for employees and their families, such as an annual cleanup along the banks of the Arakawa River to provide. In Japan, starting with a cleanup effort at the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park in June 2018, the company has been organizing volunteer cleaning activities at the banks of the Arakawa River every year since 2019, and 2022 counts as our fifth year. In 2022, a total of 85 employees and their families from Monex Group, Monex Securities, Japan Catalyst, Coincheck, and Viling gathered to pick up plastic wastes and oversized garbage from the riverbed.

Photo of employees and their families wearing corporate T-shirts cleaning up along the river.
Group photo of employees and their families who participated in the volunteer activities.
Photo of employees and their families wearing corporate T-shirts cleaning up along the river.

TradeStation Cares (US Segment)

In 2007, TradeStation formalized its commitment to a give-back with the creation of “TradeStation Cares” — an employee led initiative that focuses on helping those in need in and around its community by partnering with local organizations and charities. Throughout the year team members work together to identify and select various causes to support. With a bottom-up, employee-driven approach, TradeStation engages employees from across its locations to raise money and volunteer for causes that are important to them. As of February 2022, TradeStation has supported four local community charities and fourteen national charities.

 

A group photo of about 80 TradeStation members and their families wearing the corporate T-shirt.

 

 

ART IN THE OFFICE Project

Monex Group, Inc. started the "ART IN THE OFFICE" program in 2008 as part of its social and cultural activities with an aim to support emerging contemporary artists and enhance employee education. The program seeks applications from artists of works to install on the wall of the press conference room within Monex's headquarters. We hope that new value can be created from the diversity offered by "ART IN THE OFFICE."