By Kang Seung-woo
Shinhan Bank has solidified its leading position in the banking industry in the second quarter with an outstanding business performance while other lenders are reeling from the prolonged lull in the real estate market.
Based on its remarkable showing, the nation’s third largest lender has stepped up efforts to strengthen its microcredit finance services as part of efforts to support low-income families and small businesses.
Along with its parent company Shinhan Financial Group, it set up Shinhan Smile Microcredit Bank, the first among local lenders in December last year in order to offer unsecured loans to low-income households.
Since its inception, the service has lent 1.5 billion won as of August and it plans to expand its size of capital from 50 billion won to 70 billion won by next year.
Most recently, on Tuesday, the group opened its fourth microcredit bank in Mangwoo-dong in Seoul expanding its financing services for the poor and underprivileged. It also plans to open microcredit bank branches in Changwon and Cheongju in September and in Youngcheon in October.
On top of the microcredit service, the bank has conducts enhanced corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, insisting on being a faithful member of society.
To contribute to building a healthy society and to become Korea’s representative service enterprise, the bank launched the Shinhan Volunteer Team in July 2004, keeping in mind that CSR is something that is essential for the growth and development of the bank and its employees.
Since then, the squad, made up of the president of the bank as the captain and the employees, has practiced the sharing of its resources together with its poor neighbors and worked hard to meet its social responsibilities as a mature corporate citizen.
Under the slogan “Happiness of sharing, growing joy,” the bank has set the direction for the development of future generations, the preservation of traditional culture and the cultivation of a beautiful town.
On the basis of this principle, entire branches of Shinhan have participated in a variety of areas including preserving the environment, academic training, social welfare, culture and art, sports and the public sector.
Shinhan, which has shown interest in the environment and corporate social responsibility, has run environmental campaigns in 18 national parks, and it also promotes the protection of nature, organizing the National Environmental Photo Competition sponsored by the Ministry of Environment every year.
Shinhan has been active in awarding scholarship funds and supporting cultural and artistic activities, as it has the scholarship foundation and finance museum, both for the first time in domestic banking history.
The Shinhan Bank’s Foundation of Hope, aiming at nurturing human resources who can contribute to the nation and international society, provides a scholarship of 100 million won per year to the children of Korean nationals in seven countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China.
The Korea Finance History Museum located in Jung-gu, Seoul, has about 3,000 finance exhibits, while the Shinhan Gallery, which has been a key place for special events and exhibitions, supports young prospects in the arts.
It has promoted public-sharing programs such as education sharing, support of low-income families and credit defaulters. Shinhan was the first lender to introduce the credit recovery program.
In addition, it supports a variety of social welfare programs including the Children’s Economics Class, and Sending Teachers Abroad. The first program is to provide pre-school and school children with a background in economics, while the latter is to support Korean ancient history tours for elementary, middle and high school students.
Shinahn is active in CSR by developing and selling public interest products and it has campaigned for corporate transparency to establish clean working practices and financial transactions.