CEO Message
- Ever since the company was established in 1982 to uphold its founding mission to ‘Benefit the world through the power of finance’ with novel thinking, Shinhan has continued to pioneer a new path for the Korean financial industry through innovations and changes in unconventional ways. We have established various industry leading standards such as the management principles of customer satisfaction, internet banking services, unmanned branches, Retail Revolution, and others and continued to grow in both quantity and quality since the establishment of the first private financial holding company in Korea in 2001 based on its excellent risk management competency. Today, we successfully solidified our status as Korea’s leading financial group. In 2017, when a new era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) fully unfolds, we continued our efforts to leap forward as Asia’s leading financial group implementing the 『2020 SMART Project』. Furthermore, we successfully deployed solid and harmonious foundations for growth to maximize the group’s value as the establishment of its 13th subsidiary Shinhan REITs Management, expansion of its matrix system for major group business lines
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- including Group & Global Investment Banking (GIB), Shinhan Wealth Management (WM), and Global Markets & Securities (GMS) Business Divisions, and development of the One Shinhan Strategy which is an implementation system of sharing its group resources as if it were one united company. We have accelerated the implementation of glocalization strategies such as acquisition of the retail division of ANZ Bank in Vietnam, acquisition of overseas subsidiary in Mexico, and introduction of a “Country Head system” to promote stable localization and advancement into global markets at the same time and to create synergies across the world. Meanwhile, we have established a foothold for digital transformation by developing the group-wide digital response system and partnering with leading ICT companies at home and abroad to create a financial ecosystem. In order to continue Shinhan culture’s creativity and its advancement, we worked hard to help our employees maintain a healthy work-life balance. We also sought to nurture future talents by expanding the Smart Work System to the entire group, operating in-house venture programs, and developing the Shinhan system for fostering management leaders. In particular, all executives and employees of Shihan Financial Group were committed to practicing its ‘Compassionate Finance, Your Companion for the Future’ mission to increase the value of ‘customers’, ‘Shinhan’, and the ‘society’ together. Along with efforts for compassionate finance to provide inclusive and productive financial support for the working class and self-employed persons, and SMEs, we closely cooperated with government agencies to play a leading role in reinvigorating green finance and green management. Our efforts to be a responsible corporate citizen has been widely accepted by the public. Shinhan Financial Group was listed among the ‘100 Most Sustainable Global Corporations’ of the Davos Forum for 6 consecutive years, included in the DJSI World for 5 consecutive years, and selected for the Carbon Management Honors Club of CDP Korea in the 4 consecutive years, and awarded an S rating in the corporate governance assessment by the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) of the Korea Exchange.
- We have been able to achieve such outstanding management performance and bring meaningful results socially responsible management practices through compassionate finance because of the solid trust and support from our customers, shareholders, and various takeholders. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of the executives and employees of Shinhan Financial Group. The financial industry is experiencing unprecedented changes with the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution represented by hyper-connectivity and hyper-intelligence. Previous methods for success have now become outdated, so it is the time for us to set higher goals and embark on new creative challenges to wisely overcome the current business environment.
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A Shinhan Bank event that was hosted to encourage new employees
- To that end, we adopted a ‘Higher Vision, Innovative Shinhan!’ as our management slogan of this year. Centering on the 2020 SMART Project, we will speed up the implementation of key tasks with a higher vision so that our efforts will bring substantial results, while pursuing last year’s strategies established under the motto ‘add speed to the creativity’ consistently. First and foremost, we will implement the ‘Society of Hope Project’ to make a positive impact on our society through our core business of financing and create a virtuous circle of shared prosperity along with all stakeholders. We plan to inject KRW 270 billion by 2020 to engage in various and practical activities of the project including support for the recovery of customers with low credit ratings, employment of women experiencing career disruption, establishment of after-school child care centers for elementary students, urban regeneration projects of local governments, and trainings for the youth in preparation of the fourth industrial revolution and to actively support economic independence of low-income and socially marginalized groups and new challenges of venture businesses and startup owners. We have a proud history of pioneering a new path for the Korean financial industry. We urge you to continue to trust and support Shinhan in the future. We will work harder to be a responsible corporate citizen that grows and develops together with our society through creative finance to lead the paradigm of the future. We look forward to your continued interest and support. Thank you.
Chairman & CEO of Shinhan Financial Group Cho Yong-byoung