National Pension Service strengthens voting rights standards for treasury shares... We decided to vote in favor after considering shareholder value.

Eun-Kyung Jeong "Fund management from a long-term perspective... Returns must be evaluated in a long-term and comprehensive manner"

This year, the senior citizen emergency fund lending project was increased by 8.5 billion won... Operates without interruption until the end of the year

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Young-shin = The National Pension Service is strengthening the standards for exercising voting rights on holding and disposing of companies' treasury stocks.

The National Pension Fund Management Committee held its 7th meeting at the Seoul Government Complex on the 20th and announced that it deliberated and decided on the 'Revised Guidelines on Responsible Activities of National Pension Trustees', which reflects system changes resulting from the revision of the Commercial Act in the detailed standards for exercising voting rights for domestic and foreign stocks.

The National Pension Service decided to approve when a company requests approval of a plan to hold and dispose of its own shares at the general shareholders' meeting if it is consistent with the enhancement of long-term shareholder value, taking into account consistency with the purpose announced at the time of repurchasing shares and the concreteness and rationality of the plan.

Even when the company submitted to the general shareholders' meeting a proposal to change the articles of incorporation, which stipulates exceptions for holding and disposing of treasury stock to achieve management purposes, it was decided to approve only if it was in line with long-term shareholder value, considering the rationality of the reason and the possibility of reflecting the opinions of general shareholders when approving the plan.

Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyung, who chairs the Fund Committee, said in her opening remarks, "I am well aware that the public is very concerned about the long-term financial stability of the National Pension Service due to recent volatility in domestic stocks. In order to properly evaluate performance, it is necessary to evaluate the rate of return on all assets in a long-term and comprehensive manner."

Minister Jeong explained, “The National Pension Service operates funds from a long-term perspective in accordance with fund management principles such as profitability and stability to ensure a stable retirement for citizens,” and added, “We are long-term investors who invest in various assets such as domestic stocks, foreign stocks, domestic bonds, foreign bonds, and alternative investments.”

He added, “We will closely monitor the financial market situation and strive to improve long-term management performance so that people can entrust their retirement with peace of mind.”

Meanwhile, at the meeting on this day, the Fund Committee deliberated and decided on the '2026 National Pension Fund Operation Plan Change', which includes increasing the budget for the retirement emergency fund loan project (silver loan) project by 8.5 billion won.

Accordingly, this year's Silver Loan project budget increased from 54 billion won to 62.5 billion won.

Silver Loan is a business that lends emergency living funds to national pension recipients over 60 years of age for purposes such as deposits for lease and monthly rent, medical expenses, spouse funeral expenses, and disaster recovery expenses.

The Fund reported that the increased budget will allow the Silver Loan project to proceed without interruption until the end of the year.