By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Shinhan Bank, the main pillar of Shinhan Financial Group, is leading the group's efforts to realize its vision of becoming ``World Class Financial Group.''
On top of expanding ITS customer base, Shinhan is focusing on differentiating products and innovating process. It has placed top priority on enhancing the value of services to customers and shareholders, and is making efforts to fulfill its corporate social responsibility.
The global sector is at the core of the bank's business strategy, which aims to reap over 50 percent of total sales there over the longer term. It plans to focus on Asia first ― for the next ten years ― to become a leading bank in the region.
Shinhan is focusing more on enhancing its competitive edge in productivity, profitability and efficiency, rather than increasing its bulk through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The bank is thus cutting costs by making processes and systems more effective, developing customer-oriented products and expanding its customer base to create a stable income source.
``How fast the business can adapt to the changing world will determine the value of the business. Hence Shinhan is focusing on innovating strategy, organization and systems, and seeking changes in the mind-set of our employees,'' a representative said.
Local banks had started aggressively advancing into overseas markets, but the unexpected global financial crisis halted their efforts. Shinhan Bank, however, is continuing with a longer-term perspective.
It has been setting up a global network, after choosing Japan, Vietnam, China and the United States as its four core markets. The bank is also keeping an eye on emerging markets including India where it can minimize risk while expecting good profitability. Its global business in these countries will be expanded.
In this sense, Shinhan has made a paradigm shift in growth strategy, seeking quality over everything else.