Shinhan Financial first in industry to launch generative AI internal control system

Shinhan Financial Group announced Saturday that it will officially launch "SCoRE AI," a generative AI-powered upgrade to its group-wide internal control platform known as the Shinhan Compliance and Responsibility Engine, or SCoRE. The move marks the first time in the Korean financial industry that generative AI has been fully integrated into an internal control platform, and the group has filed patents on the core technologies involved.

Shinhan Financial was the first in the industry to introduce an accountability structure map at Shinhan Bank last September, and has since been building a group-level internal control management framework. SCoRE AI, set to go live Sunday, was developed to further advance that framework by drawing on the operational experience accumulated through running the accountability structure map.

At the core of SCoRE AI is a generative AI engine that automatically analyzes and summarizes each department's internal control activities and supporting documentation, helping executives fulfill their designated responsibilities. The system can verify compliance items and supporting materials for individual executives, analyze department-level inspection records, and collect and brief users on external developments — including financial incidents, regulatory sanctions and legislative changes — then incorporate those findings into compliance checklists.

The group also built a shared AI-based infrastructure accessible across all its affiliates. By hosting the system on its own servers, Shinhan Financial secured data protection while enabling integrated analysis of both internal data — including the accountability structure map and internal regulations — and external data such as laws, regulatory disclosures and news, allowing the system to flag the latest regulatory changes and suggest appropriate responses.

Across the financial sector, the introduction of accountability structure maps has significantly expanded internal control workloads, making AI-assisted management a pressing challenge. In response, Shinhan Financial has been reinforcing group-wide internal controls by prioritizing the placement of high-performing staff in compliance roles and introducing a new regime that factors internal control-related costs into key performance indicator evaluations.

"Internal control is a core competitive strength that determines the sustainability of a financial company," Chairman Jin Ok-dong said. "Shinhan Financial will combine our industry-leading experience operating the accountability structure map with our AI capabilities to build an even more responsible and sophisticated internal control framework."