Hwang Byung-woo, Chairman of DGB Financial Group, "This Year Marks the Beginning of Strengthening the Group's Non-Face-to-Face Competitiveness"

2025 New Year's Address
Quotation from Zhongyong Chapter 23
Proposing Ways to Overcome Changes in the Year of the Snake

Hwang Byung-woo, Chairman of DGB Financial Group, quoted a passage from the Doctrine of the Mean, one of the Four Books and Five Classics, saying, "This year marks the first year of strengthening the group's non-face-to-face competitiveness."

At the opening ceremony held on the 2nd at Daegu iM Bank's 2nd main branch, Chairman Hwang stated in his New Year's address, "Just like the passage from Chapter 23 of the Doctrine of the Mean, 'Sincerity in even the smallest matters can change the world,' if we put our utmost sincerity and effort into every difficult challenge until the end, there will be nothing we cannot overcome."

He noted that there are many challenges ahead, including external economic difficulties, enhancing value-up (corporate value), and realizing the hybrid banking group roadmap, adding, "This year will be a very important turning point."

He emphasized that to overcome and move forward through these various waves of change, one must ride the waves like a surfer. He then said, "In the year of the Eulsa (Metal Snake), I will share three ways to move forward."

First, to strengthen the group's non-face-to-face competitiveness, we must shed our old skin and put on new clothes, like a snake growing and molting. He said, "To create a new form of business model called the hybrid banking group that we pursue, completely new thinking is required," and emphasized, "We also need the spirit of 'Bulkwangbulgeup' (불광불급), which means 'No light, no attainment,' the perseverance and passion toward goals that drove Jack Ma to grow Alibaba into a global group."

He also said we must have the focus to pursue goals like a snake hunting. As a corporation, the most important goal of DGB Financial Group is profit generation, and he said, "We need to adopt a more productive perspective, such as 'How can we succeed? Until when is it possible?'" Additionally, he stressed that we must carry out tasks with the sensitivity of a snake's keen instincts, saying, "We must carefully observe the demands of customers and the market and create decisive differentiation from there."