The race to select the next heads of financial holding companies has begun. The terms of Jin Ok-dong of Shinhan Financial Group, Yim Jong-ryong of Woori Financial Group, and Bin Dae-in of BNK Financial Group run through March next year, while Yang Jong-hee of KB Financial Group serves through November. All four chairs have actively aligned with the new administration's policy line of "productive finance" and have signaled an intention to seek another term, but there are also projections that, coming right after a change of administration, a sweeping reshuffle could occur.
According to the financial sector on the 30th, Shinhan Financial was the first to form a chair candidate recommendation committee and held its first meeting on the 26th. The meeting discussed the screening criteria for the next chair candidates. The final candidate for the next chair will be selected in early December. The appointee will then take office after the regular shareholders' meeting in March next year. Woori Financial Group and BNK Financial Group will also soon begin the process of selecting their next chairs. Under the "best practices for governance of bank holding companies and banks" introduced last year by the Financial Supervisory Service, the succession process for the CEOs of financial holding companies and banks must begin at least three months before the end of the term.
Jin has been assessed as having delivered solid management performance over the past three years in terms of revenue and stock price and as having led the organization smoothly. Yim weathered turbulence caused by financial incidents at Woori Bank, including improper loans to relatives of former Chair Son Tae-seung and embezzlement, but is also credited with laying the groundwork for a leap to a comprehensive financial group by acquiring securities and insurance companies. Including Bin, all of these chairs are in their first terms, which also underpins optimism about their extension. Since the financial holding company system was introduced in 2001, former Hana Financial Chair Kim Jung-tae (four consecutive terms, 10 years), former Shinhan Financial Chair Ra Eung-chan (four consecutive terms, nine years), and former KB Financial Chair Yoon Jong-kyu (three consecutive terms, nine years) held long tenures.
They are also moving quickly to "get in sync" with the new administration. Recently, Jin accompanied President Lee Jae-myung on his trip to the United States for the U.N. General Assembly and was also invited to the National Growth Fund briefing. Yim held a joint CEO briefing the previous day and said that, in step with government policy, 73 trillion won will be allocated to productive finance and 7 trillion won to inclusive finance over the next five years. He also decided to invest 10 trillion won in the National Growth Fund, which the government is creating at a total size of 150 trillion won. That amounts to 13% of the private-sector portion (75 trillion won), a considerable scale.
However, because all were appointed under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the argument that replacements could be made is gaining traction. For now, there has been no particular message, but as the reorganization of the financial authorities was called off, discussions on selecting the next financial holding company chairs, which had been pushed back, are expected to move into full swing. A financial industry official said, "We still do not know how the current administration views the reappointment of financial holding company chairs, but considering that one of the president's closest aides recently took the helm of the financial authorities and affiliated institutions, it is expected that the government's influence will not be entirely absent."