Last Year's Financial Holding Company Chairmen's Tens of Billions in Annual Salaries

Han Young-joo, Hana Financial Chairman, 2.3 Billion KRW · Yang Jong-hee, Current KB Chairman, 1.6 Billion KRW
Son Tae-seung, Former Woori Financial Chairman, 1.3 Billion KRW
Numerous retirees also received between 900 Million and 1.1 Billion KRW

Last year, former and current chairpersons of major financial holding companies received annual salaries amounting to tens of billions of won.

According to the 2023 business reports disclosed by each financial holding company on the 14th, Yoon Jong-kyu, former chairman of KB Financial Group who retired last November, received a total compensation of 3.856 billion won last year. His salary was 824 million won, with bonuses and retirement pay amounting to 2.657 billion won and 375 million won respectively.

KB Financial Group explained the sharp increase in Yoon’s compensation compared to the previous year (1.835 billion won) by stating, "We evaluated three years of management performance and paid 40% of the long-term performance bonus as a lump sum, deferring 60% over three years." They added, "In Yoon’s case, the lump sum payment of the long-term performance bonus for the term from November 2020 to November 2023, amounting to 1.47 billion won, and the third deferred portion of the long-term performance bonus from November 2017 to November 2020, amounting to 560 million won, were included in last year’s compensation."

Exterior view of the KB Financial Group building.
[Photo by KB Financial Group]

Yang Jong-hee, the current chairman of KB Financial Group who took office last November, received a total compensation of 1.555 billion won, which included a salary of 500 million won, a bonus of 950 million won, and retirement income of 97 million won. Most of these were related to his tenure as vice chairman or retirement.

Ham Young-joo, chairman of Hana Financial Group, earned a total annual compensation of 2.253 billion won (salary 900 million won + bonus 1.351 billion won + other labor income 24 million won). In addition, he was granted 20,454 shares of performance-linked stock as a long-term performance reward.

Lim Jong-ryong, chairman of Woori Financial Group, received 652 million won last year. Since his appointment in March last year, he earned a salary of 648 million won and other labor income such as welfare benefits amounting to 4 million won. Up to 49,997 shares of performance-linked stock were also accrued as compensation, with the final number of shares and amount to be confirmed based on long-term performance evaluations from 2023 to 2026.

At the same time, Son Tae-seung, former chairman of Woori Financial Group who retired, disclosed a total compensation of 1.3 billion won (salary 212 million won + bonus 742 million won + retirement pay 346 million won). Son’s expected stock compensation linked to future performance could amount to a maximum of 14,663 shares.

The annual salaries of major commercial bank CEOs were generally around 1 billion won. Lee Jae-geun, CEO of KB Kookmin Bank, received a total compensation of 1.205 billion won, including a salary of 700 million won and a bonus of 482 million won. Lee Seung-yeol, CEO of Hana Bank, earned a total of 839 million won, with a salary of 699 million won and an additional bonus of 138 million won. Former CEO Lee Won-duk of Woori Bank received 778 million won last year, with salary (378 million won) and bonus (355 million won) at similar levels.

Among retired employees, there were quite a few cases where they received more compensation than the CEOs. The top five highest-paid employees at Hana Bank were all retirees, each receiving over 1.1 billion won annually including retirement pay. Five retirees from Woori Financial Group at the deputy general manager level earned more than 900 million won in total compensation.

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