Shinhan's Jin Ok-dong: AX Is Now Survival, With 2026 as the Pivot
Shinhan Financial Group Chair and CEO Jin Ok-dong says the industry's next era is already underway - and it's unforgiving. In his New Year message, he called AX - an artificial intelligence-driven transformation - a matter of survival, not a side project.
"The great transformation that will fundamentally reshape finance has already begun," he said. "AX and digital transformation are no longer tools for profit generation or operational efficiency, but matters of survival."
Great Challenge 2030: 2026 Is the Execution Window
Shinhan has set "Great Challenge 2030" as its annual banner, placing 2026 as a pivotal year to execute. The mandate: strengthen core competitiveness through AX and secure leadership in the digital-asset ecosystem.
This is a timing call as much as a strategy call. Jin is signaling that delayed moves will cost market share across core products.
Digital Assets, Web3 Wallets, Agentic AI: The New Baseline
Jin pointed to an inflection point as technology rewires finance's operating assumptions. "The expansion of digital assets, Web3 wallets and agentic AI is becoming a reality," he said, warning that incumbents can lose ground even in deposits, lending, and payments.
Translation for operators: assume tokenized instruments, programmable wallets, and AI agents are in your customers' hands soon - and design products, rails, and controls accordingly.
Cross-Sector Plays: Wealth, Insurance, Asset Management
Shinhan's near-term focus is to build horizontal scale across business lines. That means integrated wealth management across banking and securities, deeper collaboration with insurance and asset management, and senior-focused services where lifetime value and advice density are high.
The goal isn't a new logo; it's higher earnings per client through unified data, pricing, and distribution.
Productive Finance and Capital Markets
Jin tied the group's growth to the strength of the capital market. He called for more investment to support economic revitalization and long-term partnerships with innovative companies.
This aligns balance sheet deployment with national productivity - and gives room for structured products, private credit, and tokenized issuance to move from pilots to production.
What Finance Leaders Should Do Next
- Define an AX roadmap tied to P&L: underwriting, fraud, collections, wealth advice, and back-office automation.
- Build a digital-asset stance: custody, tokenized deposits, on-chain settlement, and Web3 wallet integration with clear guardrails.
- Stand up AI governance: model risk, explainability, data lineage, and human-in-the-loop for high-stakes decisions.
- Create cross-entity revenue plays: unified wealth across bank/securities; protection plus investment bundles with insurance/AM.
- Re-skill frontline and risk teams on agentic AI and prompt-based workflows; measure 2026 milestones quarterly.
Why This Matters
Stagnation is retreat. Jin's message is blunt: cling to past practices and you fade into history as a legacy bank. Move now, and you set the terms for deposits, lending, payments, and digital assets before new entrants do.
Further Reading and Tools
- MAS Project Guardian: institutional-grade tokenization initiatives
- Practical AI tools for finance teams
The window is short. 2026 isn't a distant milestone - it's the execution line.
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