Cheol Woo Park
Management
Good afternoon. I am Park Cheol-woo, head of IR. I would like to thank everyone for attending the 2025 Q2 Shinhan Financial Group's earnings presentation. In today's earnings presentation, we have with us the Group's CFO, Cheon Sang-young; Group CSO, Go Suk-Hyun; Group CRO, Bang Dong-kwon; Shinhan Bank's CFO, Lee Jeong-Bin; Shinhan Card CFO, Park Hae-chang; Shinhan Investment Securities CFO, Jang Jeong-hoon; and from Shinhan Life CFO, [Gyu Song-han] is with us. Today's earnings release will proceed as follows. We will hear a presentation on the Q2 business results by our CFO, which will be followed by a Q&A session. Now I invite our Group CFO, Cheon Sang-young, for a presentation on the quarter's business results. Sang-young Cheon Good afternoon. Thank you for participating in the 2025 Q2 earnings presentation. Let me begin on Page 2 with the highlights of our business performance. As of the end of June 2025, the Group's CET1 ratio was provisionally estimated at 13.59%, an improvement of 32 bps compared to previous quarter. This was driven by solid group's earnings, the impact of a weaker exchange rate and continued efforts to manage RWA efficiently. Today, the Board of Directors resolved to pay a cash dividend of KRW571 per share for Q2 and a result share buyback amounting to KRW800 billion. Of the total share repurchase amount, KRW600 billion will be executed in H2 of this year and the remaining KRW200 billion will be carried out in January 2026. Through this, we'll continue our year-round share buyback program as we have done this year. Including the KRW650 billion already acquired in H1 and the KRW600 billion scheduled for H2, the total share back for 2025 will amount to approximately KRW1.250 trillion. In Q2 2025, the Group recorded a net income of KRW1,549.1 billion, growing 4.1% QoQ despite an increase in credit cost, thanks to improvements in noninterest income. While the cost-to-income ratio remained stable, the credit cost ratio showed a slight increase due to delayed economic recovery. Next on Page 3, moving on to capital. As mentioned earlier, the Group CET1 ratio improved by 32 bps QoQ despite the increased size of share buyback program, supported by a favorable exchange rate and a stable net profit. The Group RWA declined by KRW4 trillion QoQ as foreign currency loan-denominated risk-weighted assets decreased due to FX depreciation and the Group's portfolio was adjusted to prioritize profitability alongside appropriate growth in Korean won-denominated loans. Going forward, we will do our utmost to supply funds where necessary while maintaining capital stability through internal efficiencies and strategic resource allocation. Page 4, assets and liabilities. Please refer to the slide for more details. Next, moving on to Page 5, our profit and loss. In Q2 2025, the Group's net income increased by 4.1% QoQ despite rising credit costs, driven by strong growth in noninterest income under a diversified portfolio. As a result, ROE and ROTCE, the key indicators of our value enhancement strategy, each rose by 0.7%. This means that we are recording 11.4% and 12.9%, respectively. We will explain the details of each item on the following pages. Next, Page 6, net interest income. Despite falling market interest rates, net interest income remained flat QoQ, supported by appropriate growth focused on return on capital. The Bank's Korean won loan book grew at a similar level to the previous quarter as we pursued portfolio optimization through asset rebalancing while responding to market demand, especially in retail lending. For more details, please refer to Page 27. The Bank's NIM declined by 16 bps QoQ as yield on interest-earning assets, including Korean won loans reflected the falling market rate. However, thanks to adequate asset growth and effective execution of LLM strategies, NIM was maintained at the previous quarter's level. Next page is on noninterest income. The Group noninterest income grew 34.7% QoQ with improvement across all segments. In particular, securities and FX derivative-related gains, which benefited significantly from favorable market conditions led the overall growth in noninterest income. Let's take a closer look at commission and fees. Credit card fee income was improved from savings and marketing costs but still sluggish on a YoY basis. Meanwhile, brokerage commissions were boosted by active stock market trading, up significantly YoY as brokerage trading volume increased. Investment banking commissions continued growth momentum centered around our banking business, driven by a continued pipeline of solid IP deals. Amid favorable market conditions, we recorded growth in our trust fee income from funds and bancassurance, up both YoY and QoQ. While insurance-related income showed a decline YoY, this was due to the high base effect from last year when SPP or short-term payment policy sales were promoted. Otherwise, we're seeing stable earnings. Next, Page 8 on SG&A and credit costs. Group SG&A is under stable management with nothing notable from last year. We recorded a cost-to-income ratio of 36.6% in H1. The rise in credit cost versus Q1 was mostly due to the delay in economic recovery as well as our conservative management in terms of our loan book, where we recognized more recurring credit costs in the current period. In the process of implementation of the government-led resolution of real estate bank loans, while we have seen some additional provisioning mostly from nonbanking, it is within our expected and manageable range. Amid the delayed economic recovery, we expect corporates to see rising credit risk while vulnerable customers will be increasingly challenged. For credit cost, the size may be slightly above our initial expectations while timing of recovery is slightly later than expected. Please refer to Pages 9 to 10 for further details on our group asset quality metrics and loss-absorbing capacity. Next on to Page 11, net income by subsidiary and our overseas business performance. Shinhan Bank, despite the increase in credit costs while interest income held up at Q1 levels, while noninterest income was up significantly, thanks to improved fee income from IB and marketable securities, maintaining solid performance. Shinhan Investment Securities has been working to recover from last year's poor performance, improving the competitiveness of its core offerings such as security trust and prop trading to improve underlying business fundamentals. Personal card and capital both remained sluggish amid continued funding and credit cost pressures. But through self-help measures such as asset rebalancing, we expect improved fundamentals and a gradual recovery in earnings. Our Group's overseas business continues to return solid performance despite ongoing internal and external uncertainties. Pages 12 through 13 outline our digital and sustainability-related initiatives. And Page 14 is on our group-wide inclusive co-prosperity finance initiatives. We have been offering refinancing for borrowers from Shinhan Savings Bank with lending from Shinhan Bank to enhance the credit of our customers. We've been helping customers discover their forgotten dormant accounts while lowering to a single-digit lending rate on all Shinhan Bank household loans, charging 10% or more to help support economic self-reliance and sustainable consumption. We also have institutionalized support to help improve the financing conditions of our customers. Going forward, we are committed to the core role of finance to provide productive intermediation of financing. We will continue to pursue diverse programs for co-prosperity, to grow together with our customers as we do our best to become a sustainable financial group. Pages 15 through 18 are more on our corporate value program in terms of implementation progress and performance. Relative to the plans announced last year and this year, I can say that we have achieved good implementation results so far. Please refer to the materials for further details. From Page 19 and onward, we provide detailed breakdown of group subsidiaries, including financial highlights, P&L, asset management and funding so please refer to the pages. In terms of our H1 performance and shareholder return policies, we intend to hold a separate session for individual retail investors, so we look forward to your engagement and support and your interest. Thank you very much.