Slimming Down and Win-Win Finance... Key Words in the Organizational Restructuring of the Four Major Financial Holding Companies

Into the History of the Vice Chairman Position... Streamlining the Decision-Making System

As the four major domestic financial holding companies (KB, Shinhan, Hana, Woori) carried out year-end personnel changes, the common keyword for organizational restructuring was identified as "streamlining." With global economic uncertainties expected to persist next year, the focus was placed on crisis response through an efficient decision-making system. Additionally, organizational restructuring was carried out to respond to the recently strengthened social demands for win-win finance.

According to the financial sector on the 29th, KB Financial Group abolished the vice chairman position through the organizational restructuring implemented the day before. At the same time, among the 10 business divisions previously overseen by the vice chairman, only three divisions?Digital & IT, Global, and Insurance?were retained, while the Personal Customer, WM Pension, SME, Asset Management, Capital Market, and CIB divisions were reorganized into an autonomous management system within subsidiaries. As a result, KB Financial's organizational structure was streamlined from 10 divisions with 16 general managers to 3 divisions with 6 managers (formerly general managers).

Shinhan Financial also chose streamlining. The existing 11 divisions were consolidated into four divisions: Group Strategy, Finance, Operations, and Consumer Protection, and part organizations were newly established within the divisions. Accordingly, the holding company's management team was reduced from 10 to 6 members. In particular, division heads and part heads were assigned based on expertise regardless of rank to enhance efficiency.

Hana Financial also abolished the vice chairman system and introduced a "division executive" system. The intention is to establish a flexible and swift decision-making system and to fully deploy leaders with expertise in each field.

Woori Financial also unified the holding company executive rank system, which was previously divided into vice president, senior managing director, and managing director, into vice president, and unified the bank rank system, which was divided into deputy head and assistant deputy head, into deputy head. A "pinpoint" organizational restructuring was also carried out. Since Chairman Lim Jong-ryong took office earlier this year and conducted a large-scale personnel reshuffle, the pinpoint organizational restructuring was implemented while maintaining the streamlining trend. The M&A business portfolio division was reassigned to the Strategy Division, the Synergy Business Division was reorganized into the newly restructured Growth Support Division, and the Future Innovation Division was relocated to the Digital Innovation Division.

Each company also established and reorganized organizations to respond to the recently strengthened demands for win-win finance. KB Financial expanded and reorganized its existing ESG Headquarters into the "ESG Win-Win Headquarters," and established a Consumer Protection Team within the Compliance Support Department responsible for internal control. In particular, to protect customer assets, the risk management departments of the holding company and subsidiaries were clearly assigned the role of managing customer asset risks.

In the case of Shinhan Bank, the existing Win-Win Finance Planning Office and Social Contribution Department were integrated and expanded into the "Win-Win Finance Department." The Win-Win Finance Department serves as a control tower that supports and executes win-win finance activities not only for the bank but also for the group. Hana Financial also established a "Win-Win Finance Support Team" under the Group ESG Division to promote systematic win-win finance.

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