Kakao Compliance and Trust Committee, an independent body that supports compliance and trust-based management at Kakao affiliates, said on the 12th that last year it developed compliance system evaluation indicators reflecting the characteristics of platform corporations and conducted its first full-scale evaluations of partner companies. It provided each partner company with the final evaluation results and areas needing improvement, and said it plans to support continuous enhancements to partners' compliance frameworks through regular evaluations.
On this day, the Kakao Compliance and Trust Committee held its first regular meeting of the year and published the Kakao Compliance and Trust Committee annual report 2025, which covers last year's activities. The committee said it worked to advance the compliance system last year to strengthen compliance management at partner affiliates.
Last year, the committee revised rules so that the detailed implementation plans for the three key agendas presented in 2024—responsible management, establishing ethical leadership, and restoring public trust—could take root within the Kakao group. In particular, to prevent problems that may arise during major investment processes, it introduced an "investment checklist" so that, at key decision-making moments, each partner company can self-check for compliance.
It also set three core goals for the ethics committee—diversity, independence, and fairness—and specified detailed standards to ensure each goal is substantively guaranteed. In addition, it supports the spread of ethical awareness through investigations into reports related to violations of compliance obligations by partner affiliates, ongoing compliance support, and compliance education.
In Nov. 2025, marking the second anniversary of its launch, the committee held an internal meeting. Chairperson Kim So-young and Kakao CA Council Chair Chung Shin-a attended and discussed changes at the Kakao group since the committee's launch and the direction for future development. Chairperson Kim said that, as a result of system refinement and framework building, a culture centered on compliance and trust has taken shape across the organization. Chair Chung expressed hope that, based on the compliance- and trust-centered culture formed by the committee, Kakao will pursue sustained growth by expanding the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and growing globally, and said she hopes the parties will be discussion partners moving toward the same goal.
In a foreword to the report, Chairperson Kim So-young said, "Over the past two years, the committee has pressed ahead without stopping, using responsible management and the restoration of public trust as its milestones," and evaluated that "the most valuable outcome is that Kakao has embraced compliance as its own guiding direction." She added, "The committee will not turn away from criticism or reprimand but will use them as a compass to stay on the right path and do our utmost."
The Kakao Compliance and Trust Committee annual report 2025 is available on the committee's website.