From Coin Exchange to a Global Profit of 1 Trillion Won… Shinhan Financial Unveils 44-Year Documentary

The banner of Financial Patriotism for a Flourishing Nation—Tracing 44 Years of Tracks

“I will take part directly in modernizing the homeland.” Forty-four years ago, the weighty declaration thrown by the late Lee Hee-geon, the founder of Shinhan Bank, became the huge root of Shinhan Financial Group, which has since leaped beyond being South Korea’s leading bank into a global comprehensive financial group. To mark the group’s 44th anniversary, Shinhan Financial has rolled out, in a three-part documentary series, a firsthand account of the group’s early days and growth story via the economic-focused YouTube channel SamproTV. The day it set sail with just three business branches—July 7, 1982—is the starting point of that “big ship.” In Part 1, titled “A Dream of Financial Patriotism,” the series spotlights the sweat and dedication of the founding shareholder Korean residents in Japan who built capital with their bare hands for the development of the homeland’s economy.

A Revolution of Non-Conglomerate, Non-Intervention Finance Sparked by 341 “Ame-ba” Shareholders

In the history of South Korea’s financial industry, there has never been a case in which a large number of founding shareholders—341 people, not a specific controlling major shareholder—joined forces to create a pure private-capital bank. Kim Hwa-nam, chairman and son of founding shareholder the late Kim Pyeong-jin, recalled, “The tight-knit solidarity unique to Koreans living abroad—those who endured hardship living away from home together—made miracles possible.” At the time of its launch, Shinhan Bank’s slogans of non-chaebol and non-intervention finance stirred major waves across the financial sector. The customer-centered innovation that broke with the authority of the existing banking world—such as the front-desk staff standing up to greet customers and touring traditional markets at dawn, offering coin-exchange cart wheels to merchants—became imprinted as Shinhan’s unmistakable DNA.

Breaking Out of Domestic Markets and Into the World… The Vanguard of K-Finance That Surpassed the 1 Trillion Won Club

The substance built on daring and innovation led to an unrestrained expansion of its outward footprint. In Part 2, “Roots Amid the Storm, Becoming a Grand Tree,” to be released on the 12th, the documentary traces the dynamic trajectory through which Shinhan evolved into a mega-bank, making big moves such as the contest to acquire LG Card following the Asian financial crisis. It also reflects the current state achieved by Part 3, “K-Finance, Taking Root Around the World,” scheduled for the 19th, which shows that it succeeded in expanding its territory by surpassing 1 trillion won in annual global pre-tax profit. The production team raised the documentary’s density further through on-site location reporting in Japan and Vietnam. A small seed that sprouted from the patriotism of Koreans living in Japan 44 years ago has now blossomed into a grand tree with deep, lasting roots across financial markets around the world.