Hana Financial Group, which entered the "4 trillion won club" for the first time after achieving annual net profit of 4.029 trillion won last year, is moving in earnest to secure new growth engines centred on the normalisation of its non-bank business, stablecoins and AI.

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo (함영주) said during an earnings conference call on Thursday, "Over the past four years since taking office, we have focused on strengthening the group's fundamentals through a profitability-centred growth strategy." He added, "As a result, there were some disappointing parts, but it is a meaningful achievement that the group's profitability and per-share indicators improved faster than the industry average."

He explained, "As we worked to strengthen the core competitiveness of each affiliate's main business, the group's earnings capacity expanded, and in 2025 we recorded annual net profit of 4 trillion won for the first time."

He also stressed achievements in capital soundness and expanded shareholder returns. Ham said, "By systematically managing risk-weighted assets, we have maintained the common equity tier 1 ratio stably within the target range for six consecutive quarters since announcing our corporate value enhancement plan." He added, "Based on this, we have continuously expanded shareholder returns."

He noted that the group met the requirements for separate taxation of dividend income by increasing year-end dividends. He explained, "It will raise after-tax returns for individual shareholders, leading to an inflow of more individual investors and diversification of the shareholder base."

The 2025 annual shareholder return ratio rose about 9 percentage points from the previous year to about 47 percent. Ham said, "It is also close to the 50 percent level we targeted." He added, "We will continue to push policies to enhance shareholder value, including a 400 billion won share buyback and cancellation in the first half of 2026."

He cited strengthening return on equity as a key task going forward. Ham said, "Expanding shareholder returns is ultimately sustainable on the basis of a stable profit foundation." He added, "Hana Bank already has profitability and risk-management capabilities at the top level in the industry, and we will further advance them to continue steady performance improvements."

On the non-bank business, he said it would be "a key pillar" of improving the group's ROE. He said if major subsidiaries such as Hana Securities and Hana Capital generate sufficient returns relative to capital deployed, ROE could exceed 10 percent and even reach around 11 percent to 12 percent. He added that while visible earnings performance in 2025 was limited, performance recovery would gather pace from 2026 as the group has laid the groundwork to normalise asset soundness and the profit-and-loss structure.

He presented stablecoins and AI as new growth engines. Ham said, "If the Digital Asset Basic Act is passed, stablecoins will be brought into the institutional framework, becoming a turning point that can fundamentally change the financial paradigm." He added, "Beyond simply issuing coins, we will build a complete ecosystem connected from issuance to distribution and use."

To that end, the group has formed a consortium with multiple financial institutions and plans to expand cooperation with platform and infrastructure companies. He expressed confidence, saying, "Once legislation is completed, we will be able to lead the market with speed based on technical preparations."

On the AI strategy, he said, "Hana Financial is the only domestic financial group that has a dedicated organisation for AI research and development." He added that it is expanding efficiency and revenue-creation results by applying AI technologies that reflect the voices of the sales field across counselling, asset allocation, credit evaluation and exchange-rate forecasting.

Ham said, "We will foster AI not as a simple technology but as a core growth engine for the group and make a leap to become an AI-leading financial group." He added, "We will pour all capabilities into the remainder of my term so that Hana Financial can secure future growth drivers amid the digital finance transition."