Chairman of Hana Financial Group: Stablecoins May Become a New Growth Engine

Odaily News Hana Financial Group Chairman and CEO Ham Young-joo stated in a New Year's address that as technology-driven changes in financial structures accelerate, capital is flowing from the traditional banking system to emerging sectors, and stablecoins are expected to become a significant growth driver for the group in the future. Ham pointed out that the group needs to proactively build a comprehensive digital asset ecosystem covering issuance, distribution, usage, and circulation, rather than merely competing within existing frameworks.

Ham also noted that while the integration of digital assets into the regulatory system is still in the stage of political discussion, making it difficult to accurately assess the actual impact of stablecoins, the group must still undertake fundamental innovation in advance. Through cross-industry and cross-regional cooperation, it should lay the groundwork for a distribution network in anticipation of the broader application of stablecoins. Furthermore, he emphasized the need to reduce high dependence on traditional banking operations and accelerate expansion into non-banking businesses to address the structural transformation of finance brought about by the development of artificial intelligence and changes in capital flow patterns. Ham also warned that relying solely on scale and past successes is no longer sufficient to ensure long-term survival. The group needs to systematically restructure its investment banking, risk management, and corporate credit assessment functions, overcome internal inertia, and adopt a more urgent approach to seeking new growth opportunities. (Korea Herald)