Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
KB chief tasked with reinforcing digital, global business
KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo shares his vision during a meeting with reporters at KB Kookmin Bank's head office on Yeouido in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Lee Min-hyung
By Lee Min-hyung
KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo is set to undertake crucial tasks for the group's timely digital transformation and overseas sales growth after extending his leadership for another three years.
Yoon has led the nation's largest financial holding firm by market capitalization since 2014. In the latest decision by the group's CEO recommendation committee, Yoon was named the final candidate for the chairmanship. His third-term tenure will officially start from November after approval from a planned shareholders' extraordinary meeting.
The KB leader has been recognized for his management achievements, as represented by the firm's stable growth in revenue and sales. Under Yoon's leadership, KB generated a net profit of 3 trillion won in 2017 for the first time. Its yearly net profit has since topped the 3 trillion won mark for three consecutive years, which is unprecedented among the nation's major financial firms.
Yoon, however, is also tasked with handling a series of urgent tasks to keep the group moving forward at a crucial time when the global financial market is faced with a drastic shift amid the rise of non-face-to-face transactions sparked by the global pandemic shock.
One of his priorities is to enable the group and its key affiliates to rapidly adapt to the online-centered financial ecosystem and ward off potential threats from emerging internet-driven banking players such as Kakao Bank.
“We are going to become one of the best financial firms in terms of digital platforms,” Yoon told reporters on Thursday morning.
He also shared his vision to compete with emerging tech-driven financial players such as Kakao and Naver through group-wide efforts. He picked speed, simplicity and security as the three core factors for digital leadership.
Yoon also underlined the importance of revenue diversification in overseas markets, as the Korean financial market is expected to continue experiencing a sharp growth slowdown.
“Our shares are at a terrible level due to lingering concerns over traditional financial firms' competitiveness amid the era of non-face-to-face transactions,” he said. KB was trading around 37,700 won Thursday and has failed to make any meaningful rebounds in recent years.
To tackle the structural slowdown in the industry, Yoon has pledged to enhance the group's global competitiveness and make more efforts to find new growth models.
“We need to diversify our portfolios and find new growth engines,” he said. Toward this end, he underscored the need for the group to strengthen its global business.
The slowdown of growth was not limited in the financial industry due to the prolonged low interest rate and overall global economic downturn.
Earlier this year, Yoon shared his goal of turning Vietnam and Indonesia into the group's next major revenue sources through more mergers and acquisitions (M&As) there. They are two of Asia's emerging countries with huge trading and demographic potential.
KB is now expanding rapidly in Myanmar. KB Kookmin Bank ― a cash-cow banking affiliate of the group ― is opening more branches there after entering the country about two years ago.
“For the past six years, Yoon has demonstrated his leadership by diversifying revenue streams in the non-banking and global business areas, which was why the committee named him the sole candidate for the next leader,” a KB official said.