Shinhan Financial Group will integrate the mobile apps of its group subsidiaries?including banking, card, securities, and insurance?into its bank app, 'SOL Bank.' The company has decided to merge 'SuperSOL,' which already provides some of these functions, into the bank app to create a flagship group application. The goal is to prevent customer attrition while strengthening universal app features, thereby officially launching cross-sector financial services.

According to the financial industry on May 16, Shinhan Financial Group is currently pursuing the 'New SuperSOL Integration Project,' which aims to consolidate the financial services of its subsidiaries, including the bank, into a single mobile app by June next year. In connection with this, Shinhan Bank recently issued a bid announcement for platform development. The total project budget is 15.6 billion won.

Currently, Shinhan Financial Group operates SuperSOL, which partially combines the mobile apps and functions of each subsidiary as a separate service. The core of this project is to absorb and integrate SuperSOL into the bank's mobile app, 'SOL Bank.' At present, SuperSOL covers about 30% of available services, but this will be expanded to 100%, effectively including all financial services of the group's subsidiaries within SOL Bank. This marks a shift from the previous strategy of promoting SuperSOL as the integrated app, to growing the bank-centered 'SOL Bank' as the group's flagship universal app.

A senior official at Shinhan Bank stated, "Operating SuperSOL showed us that it is not easy to move bank customers, and the migration process itself is inconvenient," adding, "We concluded that it would be better to fully renew the widely used SOL Bank and turn it into a universal app." As of now, SOL Bank has 10 million monthly active users (MAU), while SuperSOL has around 3 million.

Currently, SOL Bank allows users to move to card, insurance, and securities services through links, but it does not yet reach the level of a universal app that consolidates all functions into a single platform. SuperSOL, too, is closer to a linked menu that lists functions by subsidiary. Other major banks are also developing 'super apps' by updating their bank apps, but there is a difference between these and universal apps, where products and services among subsidiaries are organically connected.

Photo by Shinhan Financial Group

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The official explained, "We started from the question of whether it is right to have customers maintain their asset portfolios solely with bank products, or whether we should create an ecosystem within the app that allows for a more diverse portfolio from the perspective of customer choice," and added, "Rather than simply aggregating subsidiary services mechanically, we aim to expand by integrating products across subsidiaries. We intend for the app to serve as a true universal app."

By integrating the apps, customers will be able to handle all financial services of the group's subsidiaries through a single app. Managing cross-sector asset portfolios will also become easier than before. From the group's perspective, there is the added benefit of attracting bank customers to non-bank subsidiaries.

Shinhan Financial Group also plans to develop new converged group products and integrate benefits. By incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), the app will provide a form of investment advisory service that spans different financial sectors. Beyond products sold by the bank, the scope will expand to include securities and insurance, enabling recommendations or advisory services tailored to customer age groups and transaction patterns.

Even after the integrated app is launched, the mobile apps of insurance, securities, and card subsidiaries, as well as SuperSOL, will be maintained for the time being. A bank official explained, "It takes time for stabilization, and if there are any issues, each subsidiary needs to be able to respond individually," adding, "SuperSOL will not be discontinued immediately; it will remain in a lighter form and coexist for a certain period."

As the number of features increases, the app may become heavier and slower, so the project is focusing on improving this aspect. Another challenge is to design the app screens and user experience so that customers who have only used the bank app do not feel inconvenienced. Customers who have only used simple functions such as inquiries or transfers may find the changes more difficult. The official emphasized, "The initial screen will be kept simple, and the services most frequently used by existing customers will be intuitively organized and preserved, while we continue to pursue convergence."