Shin Yong-byeong, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman: "ESG is a company's vaccine against uncertainty"

Launch of 'ESG Promotion Committee' with All Group CEOs Participating to Review Group ESG Performance
Introducing New Standards for ESG Management Including Quantitative Performance Disclosure and Monitoring System Establishment

Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, emphasized on the 17th, "ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is like a vaccine for companies to prepare for uncertain management environments," adding, "Let's accelerate the transition from the ESG 2.0 stage, where we contemplate and declare ESG management, to the ESG 3.0 stage, where we discover and implement Shinhan's unique differentiated ESG business model."

On the same day, Chairman Cho announced this at the first meeting of the newly established 'ESG Promotion Committee,' which was created to manage the group's ESG management performance and further strengthen the momentum of ESG strategy promotion, attended by the CEOs of group companies.

Shinhan Financial established the ESG Promotion Committee, attended by all group company CEOs, and alongside the previously operated ESG Strategy Committee (formerly the Social Responsibility Management Committee), the Group ESG Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer (CSSO) Council (formerly the Group Sustainability Management CSO Council), and the Group Sustainability Management Working Council (formerly the Group ESG Working Council), built an integrated ESG driving system at the group level for unified strategy promotion.

Additionally, as the first domestic financial company, Shinhan Financial plans to internalize ESG throughout its practical management activities by establishing an ESG performance management system that quantitatively measures and evaluates ESG business outcomes pursued by each group company, such as eco-friendly finance, asset portfolio carbon emission management, innovative finance including startup support, and the establishment of loan and investment screening systems.

At the meeting, the group reviewed the ESG business achievements promoted last year and conducted monitoring of carbon emissions and carbon intensity as a priority task of the group's eco-friendly strategy, 'Zero Carbon Drive,' aiming to reduce carbon emissions from financial asset portfolios by 38.6% by 2030.

In particular, during the ESG agenda discussion personally chaired by Chairman Cho, top executives from each group company engaged in a heated debate on the topic of "methods to internalize ESG strategies into the key business processes of each group company."

Since 2019, Shinhan Financial has been the first financial company to appoint CSSOs, executives responsible for strategy and sustainability, across all group companies and designate ESG working officers in strategy departments to promote a unified ESG strategy at the group level.

Since 2015, the 'Social Responsibility Management Committee,' centered on outside directors and the first of its kind in the financial sector, has actively attracted attention from investors and rating agencies by having its chairman conduct regular meetings with major global investment institutions regarding ESG performance and promotion strategies.

Based on these activities, Shinhan Financial has been recognized for its sincerity in promoting ESG management by not only regularly monitoring ESG performance but also disclosing ESG core issue management indicators, led by climate change, in quarterly earnings release materials.

A Shinhan Financial official stated, "Shinhan Financial was the first domestic financial company to establish an ESG performance management system, and through this, we will continuously disclose ESG performance every quarter." They added, "We will do our best to fulfill the social responsibility of finance by practicing various ESG activities for sustainable management."

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