Son Byung-hwan, the new chairman of the NH NongHyup Financial Group. (Photo: NHFG)

Under rapidly changing internal and external conditions, NH NongHyup Financial Group is tasked with two missions: serving customers as a financial institution and playing the role of a profit-generating center for agricultural cooperatives.

“We will have to explore new business areas to contribute to the development of agriculture and farming villages along with substantial growth over the next 10 years,”

Son Byung-hwan, the new chairman of NH NongHyup Financial Group, said in his inauguration message on Jan. 4. The message replaced his New Year’s message for 2021.

“We will make NH NongHyup Financial Group more faithful to abiding by the basics as a financial company,” Son said.

“We will secure stable profitability by establishing a sustainable management system with a long-term perspective to create a better future of NH NongHyup Financial Group. We will also strengthen our risk management system to enhance our financial soundness.”

Chairman Son asked employees to secure customer trust by putting top priority on the protection of financial consumers and strengthening the consumer protection system, such as overhauling the sales and follow-up management processes.

Chairman Son explained the importance of the group’s roles as a profit-generating center.

“Unlike other financial companies, NH NongHyup Financial Group has to play a special role to offer financial support to the agricultural sector, farming villages and farmers,” Son said.

“In order to successfully play this role, we need to secure profitability strong enough to contribute to the development of the farming community and society and support agricultural cooperatives across the nation.”

“We will do our best to ensure that executives and employees have the capacity to continuously generate profits by boosting productivity and efficiency of all affiliates and sharpening human competitiveness,” Son continued. “We will also promote balanced growth among affiliates.”

Chairman Son also expressed his strong determination to thoroughly fulfilling social responsibilities and spearhead social campaigns to make the world a better place to live.

“We will be like an umbrella for farmers, small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises going through severe difficulties due to the COVID-19 crisis,” Son detailed.

“We will make more efforts to invest in environmentally friendly companies and reduce carbon emissions by setting up an ESG management system across the board."

Chairman Son also called on employees to take the initiative in leading NH NongHyup Financial Group to the next level in the digital financial era and continue to develop overseas markets.

NH NongHyup Financial Group will build a competitive digital platform that provides its specialized and exclusive services while expanding its global businesses and overseas networks, Son explained.

“As for digital financial innovation, NH NongHyup Financial Group will introduce a marketing process based on big data,” Son explained.

“We will also provide customized products and services that meet customer needs through the combination of financial, economic, and distribution information. We will create win-win business models based on our open banking and rich data among others and expand our business areas by expanding our partnerships with big tech and fintech companies to.”

Chairman Son believes that financial companies have to constantly secure sources of new profits by exploring new markets through global expansion these days.

“Since the launch of the holding system, NH NongHyup Financial Group has been expanding its overseas network, laying the groundwork for promoting new global businesses and sharpening its competitiveness in investment finance,” Son said.

“As soon as the COVID-19 situation subsides, we will plan ahead in order to expand our global businesses and our overseas network.”

Chairman Son encouraged employees not to be afraid of failing and to defy any difficulties and hardships. “Do not fear failure,” Son said.

“Never quit in the face of hardships. Let’s do our best so that we will not regret. I will feel confident if our employees stand by me and join me in making a breakthrough in solving tough problems facing us and completing our tasks.”

“NH NongHyup Financial Group has proved its potential to ride out crises,” he said. “We have turned crises into opportunities by making good use of wisdom. This is because our employees’ painstaking efforts paid off. They sincerely played their roles in their respective positions. Let’s create a new history of NH NongHyup Financial Group based on such wisdom and potential.”