[New Year's Address] Kim Kwangsoo, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, "Financial Industry, the Right Time to Attempt Innovation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Kim Kwangsoo, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, emphasized on the occasion of the New Year that "The great transformation of the financial industry may at first seem like a huge crisis for financial companies, but I believe now is precisely the right time to attempt disruptive innovation."

In his New Year's address released on the 30th, Chairman Kim said, "I hope all of us in the financial sector will think together about the new direction of innovation."

Regarding this, Chairman Kim highlighted △data-driven management △concretization of ESG vision and goals △preparation for new risks.

First, he said that data-driven management should be set as a company-wide goal. Kim stated, "As tech companies enter finance, the convergence of industry and finance is accelerating the importance of integrated financial and non-financial data," adding, "From now on, it will be necessary to comprehensively collect and analyze data." He also emphasized, "It is necessary not only to expand beyond traditional finance into non-financial lifestyle services but also to extend business into virtual assets and virtual spaces to strengthen data competitiveness."

Along with this, he stressed the need to concretize ESG vision and goals. Kim said, "It is time to establish and implement concrete plans for 'Net-zero' management," and added, "We must continuously pay attention not only to the environment but also to fulfilling various social responsibilities such as 'inclusive finance.'"

Lastly, he emphasized the need to prepare for newly emerging risks in response to the rapidly changing environment.

He explained, "Rapid digitalization may trigger new risks that cannot be clearly measured by traditional methods familiar to management," and said, "We need to enhance understanding of digital technology and jointly consider building systems that can control, manage, and inspect it in real time, as well as ways to strengthen data resilience."

In conclusion, Chairman Kim said, "If we maintain the essence of banking?customer trust?with the attitude of 'Suyeonbulbyeon (隨緣不變)' and flexibly adapt to the new era, we will be able to find new growth opportunities for the financial industry."

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