Shinhan Financial Group Committee Begins Selection Process for Next Shinhan and Jeju Bank Chiefs

[Financial News] Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. has begun a full-scale review to select the next presidents of Shinhan Bank and Jeju Bank. It plans to further narrow the candidate pools in November and recommend final candidates in early December.
According to the financial sector on the 28th, the terms of Shinhan Bank President Jung Sang-hyuk and Jeju Bank President Lee Hee-soo will both expire at the end of this year. In response, the Subsidiary CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee of Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (the Committee) met that day to review candidates for the next presidents of Shinhan Bank and Jeju Bank.
That day, the Committee selected first-round shortlists for the two banks, each two to three times the size of the final shortlist. It plans to narrow the candidate pools through further deliberations next month and recommend final candidates in early December.
The recommendations of each bank’s Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee were also taken into account in this review. The bank committees had previously reviewed their own pools of candidates for bank president and submitted recommendations to the holding company’s Committee, which then finalized the first-round shortlists on that basis.
On the 21st of last month, as it launched the succession process for its subsidiaries, the Shinhan Financial Group Committee provided the bank committees with information on the succession candidate pool. The bank committees then established qualifications for the next bank presidents, taking into account domestic and international business conditions and medium- and long-term strategies, and recommended to the Committee candidates with relevant expertise and experience after reviewing them.
In particular, a process allowing bank committees to participate directly in recommending candidates for bank president was introduced for the first time this year. Shinhan Financial Group established separate review criteria and operating procedures, focusing on strengthening candidate vetting and enhancing fairness and transparency in the management succession process.
The group also introduced a system under which the chair of a bank’s Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee attends the holding company Committee’s final meeting. The committee chair will explain the results of the candidate reviews conducted to date and convey views on the selection of the final candidate. This allows the bank committees to participate throughout the appointment process, from the initial recommendation of candidates to the final decision.
That day, the Committee also finalized review criteria for candidates for representative director positions at 10 subsidiaries, including Shinhan Bank. Going forward, it will assess the candidate pools by comprehensively considering the finalized criteria and the bank committees’ recommendations. It will then conduct in-depth interviews and evaluations of the final shortlists to select the final candidates. Those recommended will begin their terms in January next year after review by each subsidiary’s Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee and approval by its board of directors and general meeting of shareholders.
A board official at Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. said, “The process, introduced for the first time this year, for bank committees to recommend pools of candidates for bank president will help strengthen the independence and accountability of subsidiary boards,” adding, “The holding company’s Committee and the subsidiary committees will work closely together to put in place a fair and transparent management succession system.”
[email protected] Seo Ji-yoon Reporter