Ham Young-joo Strengthens Digital Assets…Hana Financial Establishes Dedicated Unit

Chairman Ham "Leading Financial Innovation"

Hana Financial Group will establish a dedicated organization for digital assets that includes major affiliates such as its bank, card, and securities units. This is to quickly build products, services, and infrastructure in line with the legalization of digital assets such as stablecoins.

Hana Financial said on the 6th that it is embarking on a major financial transformation centered on digital assets and artificial intelligence (AI). First, it decided to concentrate enterprise-wide capabilities in step with the institutional incorporation of digital assets. It will form a dedicated digital asset task force (TF) under the holding company and build a joint response system across affiliates such as the bank, card, and securities units. The goal is to lead emerging digital asset markets such as stablecoins, spot virtual asset exchange-traded funds (ETF), and token securities (STO).

It also decided to accelerate the expansion of AI utilization. Among financial holding companies, Hana Financial is the only one operating an independent AI research organization, the Hana Financial Convergence Technology Institute. For AI utilization, it is applying 'HAI consultation support bot', 'malicious app detection AI model', and 'AI import-export screening task automation' to business operations. It has set AI as a core task of the KRW 100 trillion productive finance support plan announced last month and plans to take the lead in fostering the related ecosystem.

Hana Financial explained that the move was taken based on Chairman Ham Young-joo's judgment that the importance of digital assets and AI is growing. Chairman Ham said, "We will lead digital-driven financial innovation based on the two pillars of digital assets and AI."

Reporter Jang Hyun-joo blacksea@hankyung.com