Ahead of the Regular General Meeting Season... Female Leadership Among Bank CEOs and Outside Directors

Impact of Revised Capital Markets Act... Expansion of ESG Management Trend

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Je-hoon] Ahead of the regular shareholder meeting season, banks are successively appointing female chief executive officer (CEO) and outside director candidates. This is interpreted as a result of the overall ESG (environment, social, governance) management trend in the banking sector and the implementation of the revised Capital Markets Act.

According to the banking sector on the 7th, Shinhan Financial Group recommended Kim Jo-seol, a female professor in the Department of Economics at Osaka University of Commerce, as a new outside director candidate ahead of the regular shareholder meeting scheduled for the 24th. If Kim is finally appointed at the shareholder meeting, the number of female outside directors on Shinhan Financial's board will increase to two, along with Professor Yoon Jae-won of Hongik University, who has been recommended for reappointment this time.

The Shinhan Financial Outside Director and Audit Committee Candidate Recommendation Committee explained the background of the appointment, saying, "Candidate Kim is a leading female economics professor well-versed in the East Asian economy," and "She is expected to faithfully fulfill her duties as an outside director who contributes to the group’s ESG and financial consumer protection strategies and fairly represents the diverse opinions of shareholders."

Woori Financial Group also recommended Song Soo-young, a female lawyer from the law firm Sejong, as a new outside director candidate. Born in 1980 and belonging to the so-called ‘MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z),’ Song is an expert in the ESG field. Woori Financial stated, "We prioritized experts necessary to enhance not only gender diversity on the board but also the collective expertise of the board in legal and ESG areas."

The number of female CEOs is also increasing. Hana Financial Group recommended former Hana Bank executive director Noh Yoo-jung as the new CEO of Hana Fund Service at the end of last month. Candidate Noh is the first female CEO among the affiliates of Hana Financial Group. Shinhan Financial also appointed Cho Kyung-sun, a graduate of the first class of the in-house female talent development program ‘She-roes,’ as the new CEO of Shinhan DS at the end of last year, producing the group’s first female CEO.

The increase in female CEOs and outside directors is interpreted as a result of the ESG management trend, which has become a universal rule in the banking sector recently. Securing gender diversity is also an important topic in improving governance. In particular, the revised Capital Markets Act, which prohibits listed companies with total assets exceeding 2 trillion won from composing their boards with only one gender, is set to be implemented in August this year, which is also influencing this trend.

Each financial group is expanding its pool of female talent to this end. According to the recently released annual reports on governance and compensation systems of each financial group, the proportion of women in Shinhan Financial’s outside director candidate pool (long list) increased by 12.6 percentage points from 24.8% (29 people) in 2020 to 37.4% (49 people) last year. Woori Financial’s proportion rose by 8.8 percentage points from 20.0% (32 people) to 28.8% (46 people) during the same period. In addition, each group operates leadership development programs such as ▲KB WE Star Mentoring ▲Shinhan She-roes ▲Woori Wing ▲Hana Waves to nurture female talent within the company.

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