Chairman Cho Yong-byoung of Shinhan Financial Group declares “One Shinhan” strategy during a ceremony for the 17th anniversary of the financial group held on July 3 at the group’s headquarters near South Gate in Seoul. (Photo: Shinhan Financial Group)

Chairman Cho Yong-byoung has always promoted the Korean financial industry in blazing a new path under Shinhan’s slogan, “Benefiting the world with Shinhan’s power” thru “compassionate finance.”

The move, he says, will strengthen Shinhan Financial Group’s position as a leading financial entity in Korea.

“We have been deeply concerned with coming up with the strategies that will lead us to make the group a financial entity that will continue to grow for more than a century in the age of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) fraught with many changes, uncertainties, and complexities,” he said.

The chairman unveiled the “2020 Smart Project,” a vision when he assumed the top position at the group in March last year, under which the group will strive to become a leading financial group in Korea.

He led the group to set up 88 core tasks that are needed to be achieved to become a leading financial group. The moves have paid off. Shinhan netted 2.917,9 trillion won in profit last year and 1.795,6 trillion won in H1 net profit this year. The H1 net profit this year is down 4.9 percent YoY, but it is up 11.3 percent when the loss provision for Shinhan Card is recovered without a loss.

Commenting on this year’s management results, he said the non-banking sector has been doing more than its share in contributing to the group’s overall operational results. In particular, financial investment and wealth management show that the group’s operational results have been above average.

As of this writing, the group has all but decided to take over ING Life Insurance Co. for 2.3 trillion won from the Dutch life insurer MBK Partners, the majority owner, as soon as the board of directors approves the deal. The takeover price breaks down to 47,400 won per share for 48.5 million shares paying 2.3 trillion won or 2.29 trillion won.

Chairman Cho believes the segregated corporate culture of the group has been helping the group’s continuous growth. It stresses the importance of an organizational culture to progress its operation, adding the crucial importance of setting up a corporate culture to boost the organization’s results.

Chairman Cho believes the main engine that moves the group has been the glocalization. Last year, the group built a global matrix with a number of key affiliates advancing overseas to explore overseas markets, including Shinhan Financial Investment, Shinhan Life Insurance and Shinhan Card, with not much room for growth in domestic market exacerbated by low interest and low growth rates.

In 2017, the group secured a net profit of 206.9 billion won, up 8.3 percent YoY with Shinhan Bank netting 235 billion won, up 30.8 percent YoY from its global operational network ranging from Beijing, London and New York.

The group finalized the takeover of the retail part from ANZ Vietnam to assume the top position in Vietnam’s foreign financial community at the end of last year. Early this year, the group took over 100 percent of the Prudential Vietnam Finance, a consumer financing firm in Vietnam, which was the largest M&A deal ever made by the credit card affiliate.

Cho said the deal shows that the Global Matrix strategy is working, with the expansion of the credit card operation leading synergy among the group’s various affiliates overseas under the name of One Shinhan.