Hana Financial Group kicks off CEO succession process for 6 affiliates, results expected by early December

Hana Financial Group announced Wednesday that it has convened its group executive candidate recommendation committee to launch CEO succession procedures for six major affiliates: Hana Bank, Hana Securities, Hana Card, Hana Capital, Hana Life Insurance and Hana Savings Bank.

The group-level committee, which handles CEO candidate recommendations for Hana Financial Group's major affiliates, is chaired by an outside director.

Three of its four members are outside directors, a structure designed to ensure independent deliberation throughout the succession process, with outside directors leading committee operations and decision-making.

Hana Financial Group is also expanding the role of Hana Bank's own executive candidate recommendation committee. Reflecting best-practice governance standards, the group committee has documented its succession plan and, since 2024, has granted the bank committee authority to recommend candidates for the bank president position. Under this arrangement, the bank committee submits candidates along with supporting rationale, and the group committee deliberates on whether to include them in the standing candidate pool before notifying the bank committee of its decision.

Starting this year, the bank committee's role expands beyond nominating candidates to include providing input on the final shortlist. The shortlist will be shared with the bank committee, and the bank committee chair will attend the final evaluation as a representative to convey the committee's views directly.

To enhance transparency, the group committee also disclosed in advance the number of candidates at each stage and the overall timeline.

After a screening process, the group committee plans to select a shortlist of up to three candidates per affiliate by late October, then narrow the field to one final candidate per affiliate by early December before forwarding recommendations to each affiliate's nomination committee.

The group committee said it will secure a minimum verification period of two weeks at each screening stage to allow thorough review of candidates, and will apply pre-established evaluation criteria to all candidates to ensure fairness and objectivity.

Final candidates on the shortlist will undergo in-depth interviews, including presentations, after which evaluators will complete assessment forms and vote to confirm the final nominee.

Won Suk-yeon, chair of the group executive candidate recommendation committee, said the independent, outside-director-led committee would conduct the recommendation process transparently and fairly according to a publicly disclosed schedule. "We will communicate closely with the bank nomination committee and recommend to each affiliate's committee the best leader for each business sector, based on competency and performance," she said.

Meanwhile, Hana Financial Group, Hana Bank and other affiliates are preparing to relocate next month to Cheongna International City in Incheon. Hana Financial Group plans to station about 4,000 employees at the new Cheongna headquarters by year-end.