Recently, as the stock prices of major financial holding companies have soared, the emotions of bank employees are mixed. Employees of banks where the employee stock ownership plan has been activated are smiling broadly due to the decent capital gains they have made from the stocks they accumulated with support funds, while employees of other banks are expressing disappointment and envy.
Currently, the most favorable places are Woori Bank and KB Kookmin Bank. Both Woori Bank and Kookmin Bank provide subsidies to employees who purchase employee stocks. Woori Bank supports 150,000 won if an employee buys at least 100,000 won of employee stocks each month. If an employee purchases 1.2 million won worth of employee stocks annually, they receive 1.8 million won in support, allowing them to hold employee stocks worth a total of 3 million won. Kookmin Bank provides 250,000 won every six months, with a maximum of 500,000 won per year. Earlier this year, Kookmin Bank supported loans for purchasing employee stocks and offered benefits to cover one year's worth of interest.
Bank employees are celebrating. They have bought stocks with money provided by the company, and given that stock prices have risen, it is understandable that they are pleased. The stock prices of the four major financial holding companies have nearly doubled in less than two years. The stock price of Woori Financial Group rose by 107.9% from 12,840 won (based on the closing price) on Jan. 2, 2024, to 26,700 won on the 14th, while KB Financial Group's stock price also increased by 121.1% from 53,600 won to 118,500 won during the same period. An official from a bank noted, "The subsidy benefits are so generous that if you don't buy employee stocks, you'd be considered a fool," adding, "I have about 1,000 shares of employee stocks that I bought gradually, and with the rise in share price, my capital gains have exceeded 10 million won."
While stock prices have risen similarly, employees of Hana Bank, who have relatively bought fewer employee stocks due to the lack of a subsidy system, appear to be quite disappointed. Hana Financial Group had the highest stock price increase among the four major financial holding companies. However, since they own relatively few employee stocks, there are few beneficiaries from the stock price increase. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, the employee stock ownership union's equity at Hana Financial was 1.40% (4,021,797 shares) as of the end of last year, the lowest among the four major financial holding companies. In comparison, Woori Financial's employee stock ownership union's equity was 8.56% (63,581,256 shares), indicating that Hana's is quite low. Shinhan Bank does not have a subsidy system, but until last year, they were required to use about 6-10% of their salaries for employee stock purchases, resulting in an equity of 4.94% (24,861,162 shares) in their employee stock ownership union. Among Shinhan Bank employees, there is a saying that "the stocks they bought reluctantly are now turning out to be their benefactors."
NH NongHyup Bank can only be envied. NongHyup Financial Group is not a listed company, and since the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation holds 100% equity, there are no employee stocks available. Although IBK Industrial Bank is a listed company, the proportion of shares owned by its employee stock ownership union is only about 0.1%, making it equally disappointing.