With regards to the Daiwa Securities Group's initiatives to promote corporate social responsibility, I would like to highlight two points of praise and suggest one issue for improvement.
　 The first point I'd like to praise is the Group's focus on social contributions through its core business. As presented in the Special Feature section of this report, the Daiwa Securities Group's CSR policy, drawn up based on clear principles and careful planning, involves emphasis on socially responsible investment (SRI) and the development and marketing of products based on the SRI concept.
　 Socially responsible investors have the desire to make the world we live in a better place. These investors are certainly on the rise and their concerns are becoming more differentiated. The Daiwa Securities Group is able to meet the expectations of these socially responsible investors, by clarifying and distinguishing its stock-picking criteria in response to the investors' diversifying and refining opinions. As a result, the Group has built up Japan's largest asset balance of SRI products.
　 The second point I commend is that the Group emphasizes ethical and legal compliance in order to improve the quality of its business and how it is conducted. The Group believes that by achieving a high standard in managing its business, the company can and will earn the confidence of its customers, including socially responsible investors.
　 After reviewing many companies, I have noticed that in the attempt to achieve full legal compliance on all aspects, companies sometimes lack the will to push through tough measures, resulting in only superficial efforts at compliance. In extreme cases, some companies just create and sign required compliance-related documents, hoping they will spare the company from scrutiny of its actual practices. The Daiwa Securities Group appears to be fully aware of such pitfalls, and has therefore made a determined effort to internalize the concept of legal compliance and integrity. Indeed, through the proper implementation of ethical measures, the Group has made real improvements to the quality of its business. But why go to such efforts? I think it is because the Group is keenly aware of the fact that it cannot offer SRI products to the public without first becoming a law-abiding corporate citizen and ethically respected company that has earned the confidence of its stakeholders.
　 Finally, I would like to point out an area in need of improvement. As the Group works toward improving the quality of its business operations, the number of customer complaints continues to increase at the same time.
　 The number of telephone complaints in fiscal 2005 increased by over 300 calls from fiscal 2004, reaching an annual total of more than 2,000 complaints. This development suggests that drastic measures must be taken to tackle this. Furthermore, the customer satisfaction surveys show that clients are unhappy when the handover of their accounts is managed poorly following a change in their account manager. Follow-up after sales was also highlighted as being poor. A greater number of complaints may be expected as a result of the increase in the number of individual investors. However, to address the problem areas, some form of group-wide change is required. More importantly, the Daiwa Securities Group has chosen to be open about this issue and has included it in this report. This shows that the Group is ready and willing to take the necessary steps to make real improvements.
　 This highlighting of the problem of customer dissatisfaction could leave doubts in some readers' minds about how confident they can be in the Daiwa Securities Group. To answer this appropriately, let us take a look at what Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd. did after a large selling order was erroneously executed at a particular securities firm in 2005. As a result of an input error, it mistakenly sold a large quantity of stocks at a very low price.
　 As we see in the Message from the President, Shigeharu Suzuki, President and CEO of Daiwa Securities Group Inc., always tells his employees that he does not want any profits earned through unethical operations. If this were not the case, then the Daiwa Securities Group could have easily engaged in a massive purchase of the stocks, just like other individual speculators and institutional investors. However, once the Daiwa dealers noticed the spike in the volume of selling resulting from the erroneous order, they immediately stopped purchasing. During the few minutes that other companies were making large profits as a result of the error, frontline Daiwa staff made the decision without the need for direction from above.
　 I will leave the readers to decide whether or not the Daiwa staff made the right decision. In my opinion, however, I see their actions as proof that the top management's uncompromising integrity and honest stance towards ethical commitment have definitely become the foundation of the corporate culture at the Daiwa Securities Group.