President Wi Sung-ho of Shinhan Bank in his New Year¡¯s speech warned that the speed of change for the 4th Industrial Revolution has been so fast that participants can quickly become bystanders.
¡°Refine Shinhan and Be the Next¡± is the bank¡¯s ambition in the new year, he said. ¡°We have to be at the forefront of changes in the financial industry through the ¡®Refine Shinhan.¡¯¡± ¡°Be the Next¡± describes what the bank should do in the future, he explained. ¡°Digital Shinhan¡± is the bank¡¯s ultimate target, he said.
This is the initial year the bank¡¯s customers will be able to take care of all their banking transactions digitally through a ¡°super app¡± that will be introduced later in the year, he said. Global Shinhan is the area which needs to be pushed by the bank, he said.
¡°We have to secure a dominant position in core markets around the world with the confidence that we can do so. We will make daring investments in the promising markets to further solidify the image of ¡®Global Shinhan.¡¯¡±
¡°We need the support from the worksites to be able to achieve various future targets under the strategy coined as ¡°2018, Totally Can Do Worksites,¡± the CEO said.
He said the company should boost communications among the various levels of the bank, such as those between the branches and the head office, the bank and its customers, but most of all between the employees and their bosses.
¡°We should be able to grasp the changes in society and in our customers and reflect them in our products and services, most importantly to the strategies,¡± he added. ¡°We should go all out to achieve the bank¡¯s operational targets all unified in a team work with the passion to go for the targets¡±
He went on to say that the bank will promote the community operation strongly than in the years past. Shinhan Bank is one of Korea¡¯s leading banks.
It supports foreign global corporates in Korea who need to process Korean Won payments locally, as well as local corporates seeking confirmation of treasury transactions. It also has an ambitious global expansion plan, opening overseas branches to provide local currency payment processing and reporting services for Korean global corporate subsidiaries operating in those markets.
In recent years, the strength of Asia¡¯s economy has seen many of Shinhan¡¯s local corporate clients enjoy impressive growth. But as these companies expand, so do the treasury challenges that come along with that. Growing networks of banking relationships and a proliferation of different electronic banking systems and file formats have led corporates to require multiple banking connections, while restricting treasurers¡¯ visibility of global cash pools
Despite being an experienced bank serving a number of corporate clients in Asia, Shinhan was unable to provide treasurers with some of the functionality offered by other banks. Shinhan already offered host-to-host and Internet-based solutions to support the cash and liquidity requirements of its corporate customers, but these solutions lacked certain critical features demanded by many corporates. For example, Shinhan was unable to offer clients access to a standardized, global payments platform. As the complexity of their clients¡¯ banking needs increased, Shinhan recognized the importance of being able to support these needs.
In particular, it required a system that would allow corporate treasurers to manage multiple banking relationships easily, while also effectively maintaining liquidity and handling operational risks.