Chairman Cho Yong-byeong of Shinhan Financial Group.

Shinhan Financial Group’s chairman recommendation committee agreed to select Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung as a sole candidate, paving the way for his reappointment for another three-year term on Dec. 13.

Chairman Cho’s reappointment will be subject to an approval by a general meeting of shareholders, slated for March 2020 and a ruling of a pending court trial, expected to be made next January.

The chairman won the 29th Dasan Financial Grand Award, which was jointly awarded by the Financial Services Committee and the Korea Economic Daily.

The award recognizes the outstanding financial results achieved by the recipient and thus contributing to the development of the nation’s financial industry.

Chairman Cho has been given credit for leading Shinhan Financial Group to be a top financial group in Korea with his unique management strategies characterized by openness, challenge, reform and generosity, on his way to achieving the best records in the industry.

The group said its board of directors convened the chairman recommendation committee recently. During the meeting, they reportedly listed potential candidates, after discussing schedules and procedures for selecting the next chairman.

Given that Cho has yet to turn 70, he is supposed to be on the list, along with CEOs of the group’s six major subsidiaries - Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, Shinhan Investment, Shinhan Life and Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management.

Former Shinhan Bank CEO Wi Sung-ho and several other former and incumbent executives are also presumed to be on the list of candidates. Industry officials expect the recommendation committee to draw up a shortlist by mid-December, because the incumbent chairman will attend a sentencing hearing Dec. 18.

Cho was indicted on charges of hiring underqualified applicants because of their ties to influential people, such as politicians and ranking bureaucrats.

The recommendation committee is expected to hold the final meeting Dec. 13 to select him as the sole candidate. If the committee draws up a shortlist, the chairman will be selected at the general meeting of shareholders in March 2020.

“Chairman Cho has been recognized by the board members for taking over Orange Life Insurance during his first term and reclaiming the leading bank title from KB Financial Group,” a bank industry official said. “The forthcoming sentencing hearing can be a variable, but the board members seem to support Cho in accordance with the presumption of innocence.”

Shinhan said it will announce the final candidates for the chairmanship as soon as the recommendation committee makes its independent decision.

Shinhan Financial Group posted a net income of 981.6 billion won in the third quarter, bringing the figure for the first nine months of the year to 2.89 trillion won, up 9.6 percent from a year ago. KB Financial reported net income of 2.77 trillion won for the first three quarters.

Shinhan Financial Group is a South Korean financial holding company engaged in the management of subsidiaries, including commercial banking unit Shinhan Bank, regional bank Jeju Bank, credit card company Shinhan Card, securities unit Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Life Insurance.

Shinhan Financial, one of the country’s four biggest financial groups, has a capital and business tie-up with French bank BNP Paribas, a major shareholder of the Korean group.

Shinhan Bank was founded in 1982 with capital from Korean residents in Japan. In 2001, it formed a holding company, Shinhan Financial Group. The group has expanded by acquiring Chohung Bank; LG Card, the predecessor of Shinhan Card; and other financial entities.

It now has total assets of over 300 trillion won on a consolidated basis.

A view of the Shinhan Financial Group building near South Gate in Seoul. (Photos: SFG)