Financial leaders gear up for year of Golden Pig

By Lee Kyung-min

Woori Financial Group Chairman and Woori Bank CEO Sohn Tae-seung

Financial leaders who were born in the Year of the Pig are gearing up to thrive, as the animal represents luck and wealth in 2019, the Year of the Golden Pig.

Woori Financial Group Chairman and Woori Bank CEO Sohn Tae-seung, born in 1959, is among the number of prominent figures with the most daunting tasks, especially given the bank will return to a holding company Jan. 11, over four years after it was disbanded in 2014.

His success will be determined by a revised business portfolio that must be designed to ensure stable operation, a task that requires a clear vision, tight and thorough management as well as apt corporate streamlining by 2020.

Sohn is pressed for time as after 2020 he will no longer be able to hold both positions, meaning his management control in the firm may decline.

At the bank's Dec. 28 shareholders meeting, Sohn vowed that he will push for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as part of efforts to expand the business to better compete with four other financial groups.

Woori under the leadership of Sohn will have its business portfolio diversified to create new financial services by increasing capital held by non-bank subsidiaries that will handle asset management, securities, insurance and real estate investment trust (REIT), a more sophisticated type of financial service.

Competition among five such groups in Korea will become fiercer following the return of Woori which had 376.3 trillion won ($335 billion) in September.

As of 2018, KB Financial Group with 477.7 trillion won remains at the top for the second consecutive year followed by Shinhan Financial Group with 457.7 trillion won, NongHyup Financial Group with 404 trillion won and Hana Financial Group had 373 trillion won.

Shinhan Life Insurance CEO-designate Cheong Mun-kuk, also born in 1959, also faces a tall order to successfully lead a post-merger integration between Shinhan Life Insurance and Orange Life, of which he was the chief executive.

Cheong, who is set to become the first Shinhan subsidiary CEO that had not served as an executive at the financial group, is expected to launch an aggressive integration drive involving a substantial workforce reduction, a reason the labor unions vehemently oppose his appointment.

His success will largely hinge on how well he handles possible conflicts between the two entities with different corporate cultures ― with Shinhan being a traditional Korean financial services firm and Orange, previously managed by a global firm ING Group.

Kakaobank Yun Ho-young, born in 1971, is expected to accelerate drive to maintain the rapid growth since its launch as internet-only bank in July 2017.

The number of its account holders and kakaobank Check Card users surpassed 7 million and 6 million, respectively, in 2018.