Hana Financial Group Launches CEO Succession Process for Six Affiliates... "Enhancing Fairness and Transparency"

[Financial News] Hana Financial Group has launched the CEO succession process for six major affiliates, including Hana Bank. It plans to enhance fairness and transparency in the selection process by securing at least two weeks of vetting at each stage of narrowing the candidate pool and expanding the participation of Hana Bank's Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee in evaluating the bank president's final candidates.
Hana Financial Group said on the 30th that it had held a meeting of its Group Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee and launched the CEO succession process for six major affiliates: Hana Bank, Hana Securities, Hana Card, Hana Capital, Hana Life Insurance and Hana Savings Bank.
The Group Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee, which is responsible for recommending CEO candidates for major affiliates, is chaired by outside director Sook-yeon Won. Three of its four members are outside directors, giving them a 75% representation. This structure ensures independent deliberation in the succession process by placing outside directors at the center of the committee's operations and decision-making.
The role of Hana Bank's Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee will also be significantly expanded. Reflecting best practices in corporate governance, the Group Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee has documented the succession plan and, since 2024, has granted the bank's committee the authority to recommend candidates for bank president. When the bank's committee submits proposed candidates and the reasons for its recommendations, the group committee reviews whether to add them to the standing candidate pool and informs the bank's committee of its decision.
Starting this year, the bank's committee will play a role beyond recommending candidates by also presenting its views on the final candidate pool. The group committee will share the final pool selected through the narrowing process with the bank's committee, while the bank committee chair will attend the evaluation process for selecting the final candidate as its representative and convey the committee's views directly. This gives the bank's committee a stronger voice in selecting the bank president.
To improve transparency in the succession process, the Group Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee has also disclosed the size of each candidate pool and the schedule in advance. After narrowing the field, it plans to select a final pool of no more than three candidates for each of the six major affiliates by the end of next month. In early December, it will select one final candidate for each affiliate and recommend the candidates to the respective committees.
The group committee plans to secure at least two weeks of vetting at each stage of the narrowing process so that candidates can be thoroughly reviewed. It will apply pre-established evaluation criteria to all candidates to improve the fairness and objectivity of the assessment. After conducting in-depth interviews with the final candidate pool, the committee will finalize the candidates through evaluation-sheet preparation and voting.
Sook-yeon Won, chair of the Group Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee, said, "An independent committee led by outside directors will carry out the recommendation process according to transparent and fair criteria, in line with the publicly disclosed schedule. While maintaining close communication with Hana Bank's Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee, we will recommend to each affiliate's committee the best leaders to guide their respective business sectors based on their capabilities and performance."
[email protected] Lee Hyun-jung Reporter