Shinhan Financial Group Holds 2020 Second Half Board Workshop
Workshop Theme: Overcoming COVID-19 Crisis and Preparing for the Post-COVID Era
Chairman Cho Yong-byeong Forms Direct 'Loonshot Team' to Build New Digital Platform
First in Financial Sector to Launch 'Zero Carbon Drive' for Sustainable Management
Discussing Various Measures to Restore Undervalued Shinhan Financial Group's Value
Shin Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, is speaking at the '2020 Second Half Board of Directors Workshop' held on the 6th at the Shinhan Bank Grand Conference Room in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] Shinhan Financial Group is operating a 'Loonshots Organization' directly under Chairman Jo Yong-byeong. Chairman Jo plans to personally lead the establishment of a new digital platform through this. 'Digital Platform Innovation' is a core task that Shinhan Financial is pursuing with utmost commitment at the group level. The 'Loonshots Organization' consists of a total of 30 members, including a division head-level task force leader and staff.
The new digital platform of Shinhan Financial, to be created under the leadership of the Loonshots Organization, aims to discover content that can secure traffic not only from a financial perspective but also from a non-financial perspective. It also plans to create greater network effects through broad openness that connects various businesses, consumers, and producers as one.
Shinhan Financial announced on the 7th that it held the '2020 Second Half Board of Directors Workshop' at the Shinhan Bank main conference room the day before, discussing measures to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and prepare for the post-COVID era future based on these contents.
The workshop was conducted in a digilog format to comply with the national social distancing guidelines, with domestic board members attending in person and overseas board members participating remotely. Notably, all candidates for the group CEO development pool (bank, card, securities, life insurance, Orange, capital, asset management CEOs) attended the workshop, sharing diverse opinions on next year's strategic direction with the board members.
In the morning, the session began with an economic outlook for next year, followed by discussions on the '2021 Group Strategic Direction' and 'Financial Plan Establishment Direction.' In the afternoon, there was a focused discussion on core strategic agendas such as the digital platform innovation strategy.
Promoting 'Zero Carbon Drive' to Lead Sustainable Management
Shinhan Financial has decided to promote the 'Zero Carbon Drive' as a key core strategy for next year to proactively respond to climate change.
As the importance of eco-friendly management rises globally and declarations to phase out coal continue in the financial sector, Shinhan Financial plans to take a step further from existing carbon reduction efforts by scientifically measuring carbon emissions from assets held by the group and setting reduction targets. Additionally, through expanding investments and loans in new renewable energy sectors, the ultimate goal is to reduce total carbon emissions to 'zero.'
Shinhan Financial plans to further strengthen its image as a 'leading sustainable management company' through advanced climate policies pursuing 'Carbon Neutral.'
Discussion of Various Measures to Restore the Undervalued Value of Shinhan Financial Group Holdings
The main topic during the 'Financial Plan Establishment Direction' presentation following the discussion on next year's strategic direction was 'restoring the undervalued value of Shinhan Financial Group Holdings.' All participants took the current situation seriously, where the stock price, which sharply declined since the beginning of the year due to ultra-low interest rates and the impact of COVID-19, has not recovered, and engaged in intense discussions for a long time on ways to overcome this.
Participants discussed implementing various measures to raise the stock price, which remains low despite being the number one in profitability in the financial sector and having an undervalued book value per share (BPS), including ▲defending and improving recurring earnings power ▲flexible capital policies such as interim dividends ▲discovering new business opportunities in response to trends and environmental changes ▲active market communication.
Operation of 'Loonshots Organization' to Build a New Digital Platform
During the focused discussion on core strategic agendas, a fierce debate on the 'Digital Platform Innovation Strategy' took place. After about two hours of discussion, including sharp criticism of Shinhan Financial's current digital platform competitiveness, it was decided to operate a new 'Loonshots Organization' directly under Chairman Jo within the holding company to build a new digital platform. The Loonshots Organization consists of a total of 30 members, including a division head-level task force leader and staff, and will be activated immediately from the 7th, the day after the workshop, to strengthen execution capability.
A Shinhan Financial official said, "While board workshops typically only share the direction of next year's management plan, this workshop became a more in-depth and heated discussion venue than ever for the group's new leap amid the COVID-19 crisis," adding, "We will quickly prepare concrete execution plans based on the directions decided at the workshop and promote them swiftly and strongly at the 'One Shinhan' level."
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