[New Year's Address] Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, "Completing a Digital-Based Comprehensive Financial Group"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, stated in his New Year's address on the 3rd, "We have set the management goal for this year as 'completing a digital-based comprehensive financial group system' to make 2022 a year of opportunity and a year of great leap forward."

Chairman Sohn first evaluated this year's business environment by saying, "It is expected to be a market environment with zero visibility, so much so that the only certainty is that it is full of uncertainty." He added, "The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the entire world, and big tech companies and internet banks are rapidly encroaching on the existing financial market as financial platforms."

Chairman Sohn emphasized, "It may be a confusing year of crisis for everyone, but as Woori Financial Group enters the first year of full privatization, if all employees unite their strength and boldly venture into the vast ocean, a greater opportunity will open."

To this end, he presented six major management strategies: ▲ Expanding profit and growth base ▲ Promoting digital ultra-innovation ▲ Fostering core growth engines ▲ Strengthening proactive risk management ▲ Leveling up corporate culture, brand, and environment-social-governance (ESG) ▲ Enhancing group synergy and management efficiency.

He said, "Building on full privatization and internal rating system approval, we will actively expand the non-bank portfolio while leading remarkable growth of existing non-bank subsidiaries. Our subsidiary specializing in non-performing loan (NPL) investment, Woori Financial F&I, is about to launch, and we will accelerate the expansion of a substantial non-bank portfolio that can dramatically increase corporate value in areas such as securities this year."

As part of the digital ultra-innovation strategy, he stated, "While boldly innovating existing platform services, we will build a digital platform specialized for the MZ generation at the group level so that customers across all generations think of our platform first in their daily lives."

Furthermore, he said, "Fostering core growth engines such as wealth management (WM), corporate & investment banking (CIB), and global business is not a task to be postponed. In wealth management, we will expand the customer base to include not only high-net-worth individuals but also the mass affluent. In CIB, we will strengthen group company collaboration projects, and in the global sector, we will pursue new businesses based on digital platforms."

He also emphasized the importance of strengthening proactive risk management. Chairman Sohn said, "COVID-19 has had a huge impact on almost all risks that financial companies must manage, including credit risk and market risk. We will further standardize internal control processes and thoroughly establish the Financial Consumer Protection Act from headquarters to the field to become the most trusted financial group by customers."

In addition, he requested all group companies and employees to participate as the group plans to set environmental management goals and plans such as carbon reduction and further advance ESG management across all sectors. He mentioned that the synergy of subsidiaries incorporated after the establishment of the holding company and the group's management efficiency are also critical tasks.

He urged employees to pursue emergent innovation. Chairman Sohn said, "In this era where the barriers of the financial industry have been broken down, small changes confined within the existing framework will no longer survive in the market. We need Woori Financial Group's own emergent innovation that solves customer needs in new ways and brings dynamic changes to market conditions."

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