Seven Financial Conglomerates Designated, Including Samsung, Hanwha, and Hyundai Motor

Financial Services Commission Announces 2025 Designation of Financial Conglomerates

The Financial Services Commission announced on July 9 that it has designated seven financial groups?Samsung, Hanwha, Hyundai Motor, Mirae Asset, Kyobo, DB, and Daou Kiwoom?as financial conglomerates for this year.

The financial conglomerate system is designed to effectively manage and supervise financial and managerial risks, such as risk transfer, risk concentration, and internal transactions, that may arise at the group level.

Since the implementation of the law in June 2021, the Financial Services Commission has designated financial conglomerates every year. To qualify as a financial conglomerate, a group must meet the following criteria: operate at least two types of financial businesses among banking, insurance, and securities; have at least one company licensed or registered by the Financial Services Commission; and have total assets of at least 5 trillion won.

In addition, a representative financial company must be selected based on the shareholding relationships, total assets, and total capital of the affiliated financial companies, and the results must be reported to the Financial Supervisory Service within one month from the date of designation.

Furthermore, each group must regularly inspect and evaluate risks at the group level, such as risk concentration and risk transfer, and establish and comply with internal control and risk management policies and standards. In addition, important matters necessary for the protection of financial consumers?such as the ownership and governance structure, internal control and risk management, capital adequacy, and internal transactions and risk concentration of the financial conglomerate?must be transparently disclosed and reported to the financial authorities.

The supervisory authorities plan to regularly (every three years) assess the risk status and management practices of financial conglomerates.

The Financial Services Commission stated, "Through this designation, we expect that financial conglomerates will establish an autonomous risk management system that allows them to recognize and manage group-level risks on their own."