Shinhan Financial Group said on Feb. 10 it will run a “Lunar New Year shared growth campaign to share hope” through Feb. 11, with about 2,000 employees across the group taking part for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The campaign is a volunteer activity in which group employees use lunch breaks to buy goods for vulnerable people at nearby traditional markets and support small merchants facing difficulties.

Jin Ok-dong (진옥동), chairman of Shinhan Financial, and employees visited Namdaemun Market on the day to buy Lunar New Year goods for elderly people living alone who are enduring a cold wave and to communicate with small merchants.

Employees plan to make gift kits of winter items, daily necessities and food bought with Onnuri gift certificates worth 100 million won and deliver them to about 2,000 vulnerable people who need care.

By affiliate, the holding company and the bank will run the campaign at Namdaemun Market; the card, life, capital, savings bank, EZ Insurance and DS units at Gwangjang Market; and the securities, asset management and fund partners units at a market in Yeongdeungpo.

Shinhan Financial expects the campaign to simultaneously realise three social values: revitalising traditional-market districts, supporting small merchants and protecting vulnerable groups, and to become a representative social contribution activity that practises the social responsibility of finance on the ground.

Jin said the Lunar New Year holiday is “a meaningful time to share the beginning of the year together.” He said Shinhan Financial will continue to practise shared-growth finance by delivering practical help to neighbours in need through employees’ voluntary participation and community-centred social contribution activities.