Chiefs of South Korea’s Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank vowed to pursue customer-centric changes as a key goal for this year, the firms said Sunday.

Woori Bank CEO Kwon Kwang-seok asked his employees to cooperate with the firm’s transition into a “customer-centric financial platform,” at a business strategy meeting held on both Zoom and via the metaverse.

“The timeless solution toward success for businesses has always been the customers,” Kwon said at the intracompany meeting.

To boost the transition, the firm seeks to bolster its control over its financial platforms, further develop its main businesses and expand sustainable cornerstones for business.

Kwon stressed the need to quicken the pace of digital transition for its businesses in order to set new records.

Friday’s meeting also involved an opportunity for 123 millennial and Generation Z employees to talk with the company’s ranking officials. The firm said the event was held in line with the bank’s 123rd anniversary.

CEO Jin Ok-dong of Woori’s rival Shinhan Bank echoed Kwon at the firm’s business strategy meeting held both offline and online Friday. The event was held at SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in eastern Seoul and streamed via YouTube simultaneously.

“For the firm’s 40th anniversary, we must dream again of a bank where customers seek before we seek them,” Jin told his employees.

He quoted “Customers will never love a company until the employees love its first,” from Simon Sinek’s 2014 book “Leaders Eat Last,” asking Shinhan employees to love their company first.

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung also participated in the event and said the first and foremost goal for the bank this year is to build a banking platform that provides easier, more comfortable and fresher services from a customers’ perspective.

At Friday’s event, Jin awarded branches and employees who made outstanding contributions to the company in terms of business and digital transition.

Woori Bank’s accumulated net profit in the January-September period last year jumped 70.9 percent on-year to 1.9 trillion won ($1.59 billion). Its holding company Woori Financial Group’s net profit in the same period gained 92.9 percent to 2.1 trillion won.

Shinhan Bank’s net profit in the January-September period gained some 20 percent to 2.1 trillion won, while Shinhan Financial Group’s net profit in the same period gained 20.7 percent to 3.5 trillion won.

(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)