Son Tae-seung: "Fear Beyond Crisis"... Woori Financial Establishes Emergency Management Committee for COVID-19 Response

Son Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Woori Financial Group announced on the 17th that it has established an Emergency Management Committee within the group. This decision was made based on the assessment that the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is delivering a significant shock not only to the global economy and financial markets but also to lifestyles.

Son Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, previously held a video conference on the 13th with subsidiary CEOs and holding company executives, stating, "With the recent addition of the pandemic declaration to COVID-19, the situation has escalated from a crisis to a state of fear." He emphasized that mobilizing the group's full capabilities to accurately diagnose the current situation and prepare countermeasures is the first step in emergency management.

At this meeting, Chairman Son ordered the establishment of the Emergency Management Committee. Accordingly, Woori Financial Group decided, through discussions with subsidiary CEOs and executives, to place teams such as the Strategy General Team, Financial Management Team, Risk Management Team, and Market Sensing Team under the committee. Additionally, with the aim of preparing growth plans to turn the crisis into an opportunity after overcoming the COVID-19 situation, the group decided to form a "Blue Team" (tentative name) composed of young talents within the group.

Woori Financial Group stated that the existing "COVID-19 Response Committee" will focus on infection prevention measures, execution checks, and securing business continuity for group companies, while the newly established Emergency Management Committee will monitor key indicators of the rapidly changing financial market in real time to accurately diagnose the crisis situation.

An official from the Emergency Management Committee said, "With the recent rapid expansion of volatility in the global financial markets, the committee's activities began with an urgent review of domestic and international fund assets and monitoring for the activation of a foreign currency contingency plan." They added, "Going forward, to respond to even extreme crisis situations, we plan to conduct scenario reviews, adjust and manage management goals, actively cooperate with financial authorities, propose policies, and explore various customer support measures."

The Blue Team, composed of young operational staff armed with innovative thinking from group companies, will play a role in proposing innovative ideas across management areas such as customers, channels, corporate culture, and social roles in the post-COVID-19 management environment, including the spread of untact (non-face-to-face) trends.

Chairman Son Tae-seung said, "While the group's crisis response to COVID-19 is of course important, creating measures that can lead the national economic recovery is also a crucial role of the Emergency Management Committee." He urged, "After overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, please make it an opportunity for a paradigm shift by continuously promoting customer-centered financial innovation plans that turn the crisis into an opportunity."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.