Inclusive finance crucial to achieving true productive finance, says Hana chairman

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo emphasized the importance of private financial institutions' role in facilitating connections between financial and industrial policies during a seminar on productive finance. 

"Private financial institutions must approach the market, not by simply providing funds but by providing a perspective that designs a new industrial ecosystem," Ham said at the forum held Thursday in central Seoul.

Co-organized by the Hana Institute of Finance, the Korea Institute of Finance, and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, the forum was held to examine the role of finance amid the latest developments in global finance and supply chains, as well as cooperation between state and private finance.

According to the Hana chairman, productive finance is truly strengthened when accompanied by inclusive finance. Productive finance refers to financial policies in which funds typically concentrated in assets — namely, loans and real estate — are redistributed to productive sectors that create jobs, and inclusive finance refers to financial services that cater to underprivileged customers or small businesses.

"The true role of finance is when it helps a company through it all — from start, growth, innovation and relaunch, along with efforts to make it easier for people to understand industrial policies and correctly assessing the value of a company based on its potential," Ham said.

"Productive finance truly becomes real when it not only focuses on high-tech future industries but joins forces with inclusive financing that encompasses the countless small- and medium-sized companies that support the traditional markets. Hana Financial Group vows to lead that role for private finance by fine-tuning productive finance by including such businesses."

Meanwhile, Hana Financial Group increased its inclusive finance budget by 1.6 trillion won ($1.1 billion), bringing the total to 17.8 trillion won this year. The budget includes 2.5 trillion won for the national growth fund, 2.5 trillion won for company investments, and 12.8 trillion won in support loans.

BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]