Compassionate Finance

Principle

“Compassionate Finance” means the Win-Win relationship of making customers successful by thinking about customer values and ensuring customer protection. Furthermore, it can be seen as a growth of social community that fulfills social responsibilities and considers the socially disadvantaged or the neglected. We think that the values shared between customers and the company can both increase in the long run if everything is considered from the customer’s perspective before implementation.

Objective

In order to realistically implement the Compassionate Finance, Shinhan Financial Group improved the system and infrastructure and expanded it as a corporate culture to strengthen communication with stakeholders, thereby realizing the Compassionate Finance within the financial industry to receive the consensus of our customers.

Compassionate Finance Emblem

This emblem symbolizes our will to create financial “Warm Wind”. The design features a dove which in the original corporate identity of Shinhan Financial Group symbolizes “Hope”. In place of the blue which represents “Trust”, red and orange express the warm image as well as the passion of the Shinhan Financial Group for Compassionate Finance.

Start of Compassionate Finance

The standard of value that society demands from companies is changing.

As a result of increased social and economic polarization in our society, there is a growing awareness that sustainable growth is not possible without showing concerns to the underprivileged. Also, the values that our society demands from companies have changed. Instead of the paradigm of only seeking increased profits for the shareholders, there is a widespread perception that we should resolve all problems in society together and proactively accept the demands of stakeholders. Based on this, Shinhan Financial Group is implementing the Compassionate Finance to establish the foundation for sustainable growth by creating a warm consensus through the financial business with customers and the society.

We dream of an abundant and warm-hearted society.

The motto of Shinhan Bank when it was established before the Shinhan Financial Group in 1982 was ‘New, Fruitful, and Compassionate”. The meaning of ‘New’ was to establish a new standard in the Korean financial industry through different methods from other existing banks. ‘Fruitful’ means to create a sound and solid bank. ‘Compassionate’ means to contribute in making our society more abundant and warm-hearted society. Shinhan Financial Group proposed a new management principle of Compassionate Finance by carrying on the spirit of the early stages of startups. The Compassionate Finance refers to striving to create customer values and ensure customer protection by considering customers as the partner of Win-Win management. It also means being considerate of the socially disadvantaged and fulfilling social responsibilities that meet the demands of the time. Shinhan Financial Group will implement its daily operations so that our customers and society can benefit from them instead of making them one-time participants that follow the recent trends, thereby gaining the trust of customers and building the foundation for customers to grow together.

We will follow sustainable growth as the spirit of the age through creating shared values.

Since the global financial crisis, the speed of the global economy’s growth has greatly slowed down. In the past when the speed of growth was faster and companies focused on growth, any side effects that emerged could be covered under the name of growth and development. However, if we continue to follow strategies that place the priority on growth when the growth has slowed, the side effects will increase exponentially. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to make fundamental changes that meet the spirit of the time, such as changing the management system and corporate culture that maximize growth and profits to achieve long-term sustainability. Also, by creating shared value (CSV) strategies should expand areas that can satisfy the company’s economic values and the local community’ social values, ultimately seeking ways to contribute to the society through financial business such as Compassionate Finance. Shinhan Financial Group will carry on the spirit of the early stages of startups ‘making the world a better place through finance’ to continue on the growth and success achieved so far. As a company that genuinely strives for customer’s success and pursue shared growth with the country and society, we will become Shinhan Financial Group that brings warmth to all corners of our society, while also maintaining efficiency and profitability.

Strengthening of Compassionate Finance

We will systematically implement the Compassionate Finance.

Shinhan Financial Group established the ‘Compassionate Finance Promotion Group’ within the holding company and each group company selects and carries out implementation tasks that suit each company. Also, the ‘Compassionate Finance Promotion Committee’, which consists of executives of the holding company and group companies, regularly monitors and evaluates the activities being implemented, while also making reports on major implementation activities at the Group Management Meeting where the group’s major issues are discussed.

We will spread the internal consensus on Compassionate Finance.

In order to establish a consensus with employees through communication, we added the Compassionate Finance section on the group’s communication website (WAF) to receive suggestions from employees and share practical cases. Also, the holding company’s ‘Compassionate Finance Promotion Group’ evaluates the level of understanding by employees through on-site visits and listens to external factors. The group’s CEO also made efforts to communicate with the working-level employees by arranging an occasion to share his management philosophy on Compassionate Finance and narrow the space between him and the working-level employees. In addition, the importance of Compassionate Finance is engraved on the employees who are used to focusing on performances by actually reflecting them in the evaluation (CEO strategic tasks, etc.) to enhance execution.

Also, in order to implement the Compassionate Finance not just in Korea but to apply it in the Asian region, which is the group’s strategic target market, we introduced the ‘Shinhan Asia Quest Together with Compassionate Finance’ to allow the group’s employees to experience local cultures as well as provide opportunities for overseas CSR activities. Also, in line with the group’s local subsidiaries, we had the meaningful time of participating in joint volunteer works and delivering donations.

Source: https://www.shinhangroup.com/en/contribute/csrreport/csr_subsidiary_group4.jsp