Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
What is SC Group chief up to in Korea?
Standard Charted Group CEO Bill Winters speaks in an online career mentoring session with Korean university students at the bank's headquarters in Seoul, Sept. 9. / Courtesy of SC Bank
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters is set to meet with the chiefs of leading fintech firms as well as financial authorities during his one-month stay in Korea, according to SC Bank. The first of his meetings will be with Kakao Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young this week.
The U.K. banking group's global CEO is spending a month in Seoul to learn about the Korean market, its digital banking infrastructure and fintech industry, as well as speak with employees of the bank's unit here.
This week, Winters is scheduled to meet with the leader of Korea's most competitive internet lender, Kakao Bank.
He will meet with the lender's CEO on Thursday, at the bank's Pangyo headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where a cluster of IT startups is located. Yoon set up the lender from scratch, leading the taskforce for Kakao Bank's launch.
SC Group is seen to be conducting market research as it readies to launch its second internet bank in Singapore, after the first in Hong Kong.
Kakao Bank was opened as Korea's second internet lender without physical branches in July 2017. It attracted over 10 million users in the two years since its launch, and currently has more than 12 million customers.
Its business is growing rapidly ― Kakao Bank posted a net profit of 45.3 billion won in the first half of the year, a 372 percent surge from its earnings in the same period of 2019.
Kakao's banking app has the largest number of monthly active users among applications of local lenders. This is attributed to the bank's focus on improving user experience, given its tech strengths backed by its parent company, IT conglomerate Kakao.
SC Group launched the virtual bank Mox in Hong Kong earlier this year. Mox introduced services including a numberless bank card. The group is preparing to launch its second digital bank in Singapore, partnering with Singapore's National Trades Union Congress.
Winters will also visit Lee Seung-gun, CEO of financial services platform Toss' operator Viva Republica, on Friday. Toss is getting ready to set up a digital bank next year.
SC Bank has invested in Toss, holding 6.67 percent of shares in the fintech company.
In addition, SC's global CEO will meet with Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo next week.
Winters has visited Korea multiple times, but this is the first time he is staying for a full month.
"It is part of a series of one-month stays in major markets for the latter half of the year. Starting with Korea, the global CEO will head to Hong Kong and Singapore, to look into each market," an SC Bank official said Sunday.
"The CEO will share know-how with the heads of fintech firms here, as Korea is one of the leading markets in fintech.”