Lee Won-deok, Woori Bank President, "Weekly Crisis Response Council... Strengthening Internal Controls"

[Bank President New Year Interview] ④ Woori Bank

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] Lee Won-duk, CEO of Woori Bank, stated on the 25th, "We will hold weekly crisis response meetings to check risk factors and strive to continuously strengthen internal controls."

In an interview with Asia Economy, Lee said, "Since June last year, we have submitted more than 20 agenda items related to internal controls through management meetings, and have promoted internal control and risk management as the most important management tasks." Woori Bank is tightening internal controls after suffering from incidents such as an employee embezzling 70 billion KRW last year.

He added, "To strengthen internal controls, we conducted self-inspections targeting all headquarters' operations to identify vulnerable areas and risk control status," and "We derived and completed improvement tasks such as improving the joint fund operation of creditors and establishing an additional back-office dedicated department."

Woori Bank also plans to promptly reflect the innovation tasks of the 'Banking Sector Internal Control Task Force (TF)' led by the Financial Supervisory Service in its internal regulations and apply them to operations. Lee included 'risk control' in this year's five major management strategies. The five strategies are customer satisfaction, technology leadership, business growth, cultural innovation, and risk control.

Woori Bank plans to accelerate 'digital enhancement' this year. Lee said, "As non-financial companies continue to enter the financial industry and competition within business areas among financial sectors intensifies, competition in financial platforms will become fiercer." He emphasized, "Woori Bank will launch a new WON Banking from the customer's perspective and unite new technology capabilities such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain to transform into a platform company." In fact, Woori Bank's banking app continues to grow. As of the end of last year, the monthly active users (MAU) of Woori Bank's banking app reached 7.3 million, an increase of 1.66 million compared to the previous year.

Woori Bank also plans to focus its capabilities on 'digital platform competition' in its global business. Lee stated, "To achieve stable external growth and solid internal stability, we will pursue country-specific tailored growth strategies in Asia, the Americas, and Europe," and "By launching new non-face-to-face services and diversifying non-face-to-face products, we plan to gain an advantage over local banks in digital platform competition and expand our local customer base."

Regarding the recent increase in corporate loans, Lee said, "Household loans decreased last year due to the real estate market downturn, but corporate loan demand increased due to credit market tightening," and "This year, the funding market tightening is expected to ease, and interest rates are anticipated to move slightly around the current level." He explained, "In the first half, we will maintain a conservative stance with stable asset growth, and in the second half, we plan to pursue flexible growth depending on the economic situation."

Lee cited the complex crisis of high inflation, high interest rates, and high exchange rates as this year's management threat factors. He said, "Increased interest burdens may slow bank growth, and the deterioration of debt repayment ability of vulnerable borrowers and marginal companies could transfer to credit risks for financial institutions. When exchange rates rise, there may be difficulties in managing risk-weighted assets (RWA) and capital ratios," adding, "We will do our best to strengthen internal controls such as thorough risk management of soundness and liquidity, advancement of accident prevention processes, and protection of financial consumers."