[Person人] Jin Ok-dong, Shinhan Bank President, Leadership with 'Customer First' Passion

Leading Digital Finance in the Post-Corona Era
Breaking the Mold with a 'Paradigm Shift' Strategy
Achieving Net Profit Growth in the First Year of Tenure
Taking the Lead in COVID-19 Relief Efforts
Successes Also Achieved in the Digital Sector

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The "high school graduate myth" who rose to become a bank president despite being a high school graduate, the "Japan expert" who worked in Japan for 18 years. Nicknamed "O.K.Jean" because he cheerfully shouts "Okay" with a friendly smile, the "Don Quixote" charging toward digital innovation, known as "Ok Haengjangnim" in private and "Okdongja" among close colleagues. These are just some of the many nicknames given to Jin Okdong, the recently reappointed president of Shinhan Bank.

"Customers are not a means to profit but the goal"

Among all these, the word that best describes him is "customer." President Jin's philosophy is that customers should not be a means to generate profit but the very purpose for the existence of banking.

In fact, when he took office as the head of Shinhan Bank in March last year, his first declaration was a "customer-centric" philosophy. The core message was, "The value to remember first to become a truly number one bank is the customer." At that time, President Jin often recalled the saying, "A true merchant pursues his own profit while considering the other's benefit," emphasizing repeatedly that the bank should aim for the realization of customer profits and pursue the bank's profits in the process.

Based on this philosophy, he set a strategic goal last year to break away from the traditional financial framework and redefine the business through a "paradigm shift in perspective," achieving various management results. Through this, in his first year as president, Shinhan Bank's net profit reached 2.3292 trillion KRW, a 2.2% increase compared to the previous year (2.279 trillion KRW).

President Jin's "customer first" strategy, which insists that "the basic concept must be changed to establish a customer-centric business system," continues this year as well. He introduced the concept that the best task for employees is "customer profitability," adding indicators for "customer value growth" and an evaluation system for the implementation process. This reemphasizes that performance only has meaning if the process is just.

Stable performance despite COVID-19 impact... Clear achievements in digital sector

This year's cumulative net profit for the third quarter was 1.765 trillion KRW, a 10.7% decrease compared to the previous year (1.9763 trillion KRW), but considering provisions for loan losses due to COVID-19, low interest rates, and financial investment product issues, it is regarded as a solid performance. Shinhan Bank's cumulative loan loss provisions for the third quarter this year were 511.6 billion KRW, a 67.2% increase compared to 306.1 billion KRW in the same period last year.

Despite ongoing internal and external uncertainties caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, President Jin not only delivered stable results but also achieved remarkable outcomes in the digital sector, which emphasizes "innovation in the essence of business."

Operating profit through digital channels at Shinhan Bank until the third quarter this year was 243.6 billion KRW, a 54% increase compared to the same period last year. Given the aggressive digital transformation efforts in the second half of the year, this year's digital performance is expected to comfortably surpass last year's 284 billion KRW.

The number of subscribers to the mobile application "SoL" also increased by more than 10%. As of the third quarter, the number of SoL customers increased by 1.3 million compared to the same period last year, surpassing 12.2 million. Monthly active users (MAU) exceeded 6.9 million. Open banking customers reached 2.3 million, with net fund inflows amounting to 2.4 trillion KRW.

Leading by example based on the 'customer first' philosophy

At the core of these achievements lies his leadership that focuses on practicing the "customer first" philosophy. In his New Year's address earlier this year, President Jin introduced the four-character idiom "Silcheon Gunghaeng (實踐躬行)," meaning to personally carry out what one practices, emphasizing, "No matter how good an idea is, if it is only contemplated and not practiced, it will not bring good results. Let's unite our hearts to create a turning point."

The COVID-19 pandemic posed crises and challenges to the financial industry. President Jin stated, "The world will be divided into Before Corona and After Corona," emphasizing, "As the standards of a first-class country change depending on how the COVID-19 spread is handled, the role of leaders is important to create a sustainable company that does not fall behind through continuous change."

He has upheld the principle of "Even if my shoulders get wet when it rains, I must be able to share an umbrella," implementing various financial support policies such as new funding, installment repayments, interest deferrals, and preferential interest rates to help small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners overcome the crisis caused by COVID-19. He also supported expanding sales channels for self-employed individuals through campaigns like "Our Neighborhood Support Program," "Good Prepayment," and "Hope Lunchbox." For these contributions, President Jin was awarded the Silver Tower Industrial Medal at the "2020 Win-Win Growth Week Ceremony" hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups last month. The Industrial Medal is the highest national award given to executives and employees who have made significant achievements in win-win growth activities between large corporations and SMEs.

Facing his "second term," President Jin Okdong confronts many challenges such as an uncertain external environment, challenges from big tech companies, and changes in the digital-centered financial ecosystem. However, his manner of introducing himself as "Jin Okdong" rather than "Bank President" gives hope that, as before, he will demonstrate through actions that both "customers" and "profits" can be "okay" achievements.

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