Woori Financial Group's 10th Anniversa

Chmn. Lee calls for renewed determination to lead changes in financial environment as global player


Chairman Lee Pal-seung of woori Financial Group, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 1.
Woori Financial Group celebrated its 10th anniversary in a ceremony on April 1 at the Woori Bank Building in Hoehyun-dong, Seoul, with some 500 officials and staff in attendance led by Chairman Lee Pal-seung and CEOs of the group's affiliates.
Chairman Lee said all of the group's 25,000 employees should actively adapt to changes in the financial environment with a mission to lead and push ahead so that the group will grow to be a strong global financial group.
At the ceremony some 30 officials and staff who made outstanding contributions to the development, prestige and honor of the group were presented with awards. The biggest honor, the Grand Award for the Woori Financial Man, awarded since the 3rd anniversary, went to Park Seok-jun, deputy manager of the Credit Control Department of Woori Bank in recognition of his contribution to expanding the bank's profits.
A plaque of appreciation was presented to employees who for more than 10 years took care of general chores in the Maintenance Department.
The entire staff of the group's affiliates participated in the Woori Group Social Service Day and presented awards to the college students who wrote the best essays on the subject of the Woori Financial Group's 10th anniversary.
Woori Financial Group announced on Oct. 27 that it achieved 1.0411 trillion won in net profit for three quarters, a 19.8 increase year-on-year. The net profit in Q3 also turned to a surplus of 508.7 billion won from a deficit of 40.6 billion won in Q2. Consequently, its net profit has exceeded 1 trillion won for two consecutive years. Total assets as of the end of Q3 increased 4.5 percent, or 14.4 trillion won, year-on-year to 332.3 trillion won.
ROA and ROE were 0.5 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, and the BIS ratio and primary capital adequacy ratio were 12.3 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. Those of bank standards were 14.5 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively.
As for profitability, net operating profit for three quarters was 6.2485 trillion won, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, and NIM came in at 2.29 percent, up 0.40 percent year-on-year. The group's selling and administrative costs to operating revenue was 38.3 percent, the lowest level in the industry thanks to self-restructuring and management innovation efforts since the global financial crisis in 2008.
As for asset quality, the substandard & below ratio increased 0.7 percent to 3.7 percent and the delinquency ratio was 1.33 percent, a slight increase.
These are the results of executing aggressive regular assessments of companies and applying newly-adopted real estate PF best practices codes in the third quarter, following the second quarter's focus on the classification of asset quality based on conservative standards and reconstruction.
However, because of the huge increase of the reserve fund for reconstruction in the second quarter, the scale of reservation savings in the third quarter decreased 53.6 percent comparing to last quarter.
An officer of Woori Financial Group said, "We will continue to focus on aggressive asset quality control, non-banking businesses and reinforcement of global capacity. As uncertainties related to controlling structure will be resolved by the privatization of the group and considering that BPS for the third quarter is 17,857, the price of shares is expected to increase as well."Woori Bank, a major affiliate, recorded 4.5214 trillion won in operating revenue, up 985.9 billion won year-on-year, and 919.6 billion won in net profit, up 169.8 billion won, for three quarters. Net profit in Q3 was 436.6 billion won, up 413.4 billion won.
As of the end of September, NIM increased 0.40 percent year-on-year to 2.19 percent and ROA also increased 0.11 percent to 0.54 percent. Key financial indices have improved, but the substandard & below ratio sharply increased year-on-year to 3.85 percent mainly due to the regular assessment of companies and real estate PF standards.
An officer of Woori bank said, "We will stress the improvement of asset quality such as through the stabilization of credit loans related to the reconstruction and management of real estate PF. Also, we plan to secure more loyal customers, non-interest profits and future growth engines to create stable profit sources."nw

Photo on courtesy of Woori Financial Group