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| Woori Bank CEO Kwon Kwang-seok |
By Lee Min-hyung
Woori Bank has created a "future finance design" division for enhanced communication between its headquarters and sales branches, in a move to recover its brand image following its recent involvement in the mis-selling of risky derivative-linked funds (DLFs), the lender said Wednesday.
Under the direct control of its CEO Kwon Kwang-seok, the unit consists of 20 officials. They will hear complaints from the lender's sales offices nationwide and come up with future-oriented business strategies.
The division is divided into two sub-units, whose primary tasks are to build trust with branch offices, and pursue innovation, respectively, the bank said.
The lender expects the establishment of the division to strengthen employee morale and increase work efficiency, thereby helping the lender find new business models.
This is the first organizational reshuffle since Kwon took office March 24 as the head of the key subsidiary of the nation's fourth-largest financial group by market capitalization.
The move comes as part of Kwon's bid to overcome long-lasting distrust between the head office and sales branches.
"We can never recover trust from customers if the current instability the lender is facing continues," he said in his inaugural address. "Toward this end, we need to give a sense of trust, confidence and stability to employees."
At that time, he emphasized three core management strategies ― regaining customers' trust, stabilizing the organization and innovating sales culture.
This reflected the lender's recent internal crisis initiated by its involvement in the huge financial scandal late last year. Kwon picked lack of internal communication as the key reason behind the controversy.
The financial fiasco on the mis-selling of DLFs left hundreds of investors suffering great losses. Following the controversy, the Financial Supervisory Service issued Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung with a warning and a reprimand.
"We are going to reform and improve all the internal systems and policies from scratch by reflecting on the recent DLF-related incidents," Kwon said. "The lender will also push ahead with radical innovation with the focus on customers under any circumstances."
Last year, Woori Financial Group also established a similar unit, but its focus was on controlling financial technology innovation among the group's subsidiaries.
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