Shinhan Financial Group executives to return stock options

SEOUL, March 22 (Yonhap) -- Shinhan Financial Group Co., South Korea's No. 2
financial services company, said Sunday its executives will return stock options
they received this month in order to share the burden of the economic downturn.
The Shinhan executives made the decision in a hastily arranged meeting after
their earlier decision to grant stock options drew criticism.
The group gave 614,735 stock options to 107 executives on Tuesday, including
35,000 options for the group's chairman, Ra Eung-chan.
Ra and other senior executives had their wages cut by 30 percent last year, and
their stock options were shelved accordingly.
But Tuesday's decision still raised criticism over the executives' morality, as
the group had frozen staff wages for the second year and was considering a
20-percent pay cut for new hires.
The government is considering measures to restrict stock options for bank
executives.
"It is not desirable for bank executives to continue to take stock options while
general citizens are tightening their belts and handing back their pay because of
the economic crisis," a senior official of the Financial Supervisory Service said
on condition of anonymity.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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