Noh Yong-hoon, vice president of Shinhan Financial Group (CFO), said in a conference call held after last year’s performance announcement on the 5th, “I don’t think it would be too much to make a decision at the board of directors in early March after thinking about (about dividend payout)” .
He explained, “If I had accepted the recommendations of the financial supervisory authorities on the dividend payout ratio, I would have made a decision in advance.” But, he said, “I decided to think about whether to take into account the 20% level or other factors until early March.”
Shinhan Financial Group did not decide on the dividend payout ratio and dividend per share in 2020 at the board of directors held that day. Normally, the earnings release plan has been confirmed and revealed, but this year, the timing was delayed just before the general shareholders’ meeting in March.
Earlier, the Financial Services Commission recommended to the banking sector to maintain a dividend payout ratio of less than 20% of net profit until June this year.
Shinhan Financial Group emphasized that there is no change in the plan to be sure to implement quarterly dividends, and it plans to actively pay dividends, considering that the dividend payout ratio has been low since June when the dividend limit is lifted.
Vice President Roh said, “Since there is no basis for quarterly dividends in the articles of incorporation, the articles of incorporation must be revised at this year’s shareholders’ meeting,” he said. “We plan to revise the articles of incorporation.”
“After the end of June, we have plans to actively pay dividends, including those that have had a lower dividend payout ratio than we had anticipated,” he said. “We will actively implement a shareholder return policy from the second half including purchase of treasury stocks.” said.
He added, “The goal is to quickly achieve the dividend payout ratio of 30% first.”