KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, and Woori Financial Group, among major financial holding companies, said they "deeply agree with the government's productive and inclusive finance policy direction and are pushing it as one of the core management directions."
The three financial holding companies on the evening of the 15th distributed a statement titled "Position of the three financial holding companies on the description of risk factors in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) annual report." It is said to be unusual for the financial holding companies to jointly release a position statement on an evening ahead of the weekend.
Earlier, the contents of the business reports that KB, Shinhan, and Woori Financial Group disclosed to the U.S. SEC came under scrutiny. They said profits could decline or asset soundness could deteriorate due to the government's productive and inclusive finance programs, but that content was not included in their domestic business reports.
The three financial holding companies explained that it was "not for the purpose of providing additional information to specific investors or discriminating against domestic investors, but due to differences in disclosure methods required by 'Full Disclosure' under U.S. securities law and by litigation risk response systems."
They added, "U.S. disclosures require comprehensive descriptions covering various scenarios that may arise to protect investors and to defend the issuer's legal liability," and said, "They also include various potential risk factors and uncertainties, such as Middle East geopolitical risks, possible changes in household loans regulations, and the industrial impact of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology."
The three financial holding companies also said, "We disclosed as risk factors items related to the 2015 technology finance expansion policy, the 2020 strengthening of household debt management, and the possibility of increased domestic political uncertainty in 2024." The point is that this disclosure is not special, given that they had also disclosed risks related to policies of past administrations.
They continued, "We are continuing efforts to contribute to national economic development and to expand the social role of finance by expanding financial accessibility for low-income people, small business owners, and small and mid-size enterprises, and by strengthening the supply of funds to ventures, new industries, and the real economy," and said, "Going forward, we plan to continue managing disclosures so that appropriate disclosures can be made by comprehensively considering domestic and overseas regulatory requirements and investor protection principles."