Park Jae-hyuk is a seasoned journalist who has provided comprehensive coverage of South Korea's corporate dynamics, economic policies, industry challenges and the global positioning of Korean companies. Based on the articles he has written since joining The Korea Times in 2016, his investigative approach has helped readers understand corporate governance, economic trends and business strategies shaping South Korea’s economy.
Banks all out to hire Samsung's data experts
From left are NongHyup Bank Chief Digital Officer Lee Sang-rae, KB Financial Group Chief Data Officer Yoon Jin-soo, Shinhan Bank digital R&D center head Jang Hyun-ki and Hana Institute of Technology Director Kim Jeong-han / Courtesy of each company
By Park Jae-hyuk
By Park Jae-hyuk
Shinhan, KB, Hana, Woori and NH financial groups are shifting their focus to outside their companies in hiring a larger number of data specialists amid the growing importance of the use of data in the financial industry and the government's move to boost the data economy.
According to the nation's five-largest banking groups, the number of employees working in their big data businesses rose to 172 at the end of June, up 64 percent from 105 a year earlier, a result of their continuous digital transformation efforts.
They have been especially aggressive in seeking leaders for their data businesses, including from among Samsung executives; the company having served as a fertile environment for the development of leaders in the data industry over the past few years.
NongHyup Bank is the latest example of a commercial bank that has scouted “Samsung men” to head up its digital division.
The NH Financial Group's banking unit, which had previously been reluctant to hire outside experts for senior positions, appointed former Samsung SDS executive Lee Sang-rae as its chief digital officer, July 1. He majored in statistics at Kyungpook National University and directed solution consulting, data analysis and digital marketing at Samsung SDS.
On the day of his appointment, NongHyup also launched its data business department to hold the dominant position in the government-led “MyData” business which will enable licensed financial, IT and telecommunication firms to receive their customers' credit information from conventional financial firms, if their customers allow them to do so.
“With the outside digital expert, we will push ahead with digital-related new businesses and speed up efforts for our digital transformation that has been made more urgent because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a NongHyup Bank official said.
KB Kookmin Bank's data business is led by KB Financial Group Chief Data Officer Yoon Jin-soo, who has worked at Samsung SDS, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Card. He joined KB in April last year.
Having majored in computer engineering at Seoul National University and earning a doctorate in computer science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), he directed the development of KB ALBERT, an artificial intelligence (AI) that can understand and analyze financial terms through natural language processing.
“We will enhance our capabilities in coping with new technologies and analyzing data with an expert who worked for tech and financial companies,” a KB Kookmin Bank official said.
Shinhan Bank hired Jang Hyun-ki in 2017 for its AI business which relies heavily on big data technologies. The AI expert, who is serving as the bank's digital R&D center head, worked for Samsung Electronics, IBM Korea and SK C&C.
Hana Financial Group's data business is currently led by Park Geun-young, who has overseen the bank's data processing over the past 30 years.
But his predecessor, former Samsung Electronics software research institute director Kim Jeong-han, who joined Hana in 2017, is still working to improve the group's competitiveness in the data industry, as the director of the Hana Institute of Technology established in 2018 for AI and big data research.
Woori Financial Group hasn't any former Samsung employees among its executives in charge of data business, but its data business is also led by Hwang Won-cheol, who joined the financial group in 2018 after working for Hewlett-Packard, KB Securities and Hana Financial Investment.
“We will continue to hire outside IT experts regardless of their previous workplaces,” a Woori Financial Group official said.
Data experts from outside firms such as Samsung will likely be more popular with Korean banks facing severe challenges from “Big Techs,” such as Naver and Kakao, which have expanded their presence in the financial industry.
The Bank of Korea recently advised domestic banks to make more efforts to develop personalized financial products using big data, if they want to enhance their profits and stability.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) also launched a working group to boost the use of AI in the financial sector, in line with the administration's Korean New Deal that pursues the use of data and AI technologies across industries.
Samsung SDS sent one of its engineers to the working group comprised of government officials, professors and financial and tech firm employees, to share its expertise in data and AI technologies with financial firms.