Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo said in a New Year message that fundamental change is needed as money moves accelerate.

In the message on Thursday, Ham said, "The paradigm of finance is changing." He said household lending has reached its growth limit and that insight is needed in corporate lending and investment. "It is a crisis for banks. This cannot continue," he said.

He said innovation is needed, including building wealth management capabilities that can track money-move flows, shifting to an optimal specialist organisation to 추진 productive finance, and strengthening screening and risk management in IB and corporate finance, along with redesigning related processes. He also stressed the need to strengthen and reform preventive consumer protection systems, including eradicating mis-selling and taking proactive steps against voice phishing, and to upgrade internal controls to the level of reform.

He said the group should find new opportunities in the coming changes with a firm resolve to overcome the crisis. He said fundamental innovation is needed to change the very framework, like launching a sturdy ship that can withstand any turbulent waves of change.

Hana Financial said this year it expects to complete the group headquarters development project, the final stage of the Hana Dream Town project, following the integrated data centre and the Hana Global Campus. Ham said full-scale relocation will begin in the second half of the year. He said the move to Cheongna is not a simple reshuffling of office locations but a starting point for a comprehensive change and a major transition.

He said the group should reorganise its capabilities in the new space, break away from old practices and take a higher leap by leading digital finance and the global financial market. He also stressed that the group should unite to successfully complete the major transition and open the group’s next 100 years with strength.