Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Kiwoom Securities appoints new CEO
Kiwoom Securities CEO Hwang Hyun-soon / Courtesy of Kiwoom Securities
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Kiwoom Securities officially appointed its new CEO, Hwang Hyun-soon, who will start in the new position from next month. Hwang has been serving as the firm's vice president for the past six years, since he was appointed to the position in December 2015.
The new CEO will lead a strategic revamp of the company, focusing more on expanding businesses in the investment banking sector to diversify the firm's profit structure. So far, Kiwoom Securities has reaped the most profit from retail investors' brokerage commissions, as Kiwoom accounts for over 30 percent of retail investors' brokerage trading.
With more retail investors coming into the local stock market since 2020, due to the soaring housing prices and low interest rates, Kiwoom's presence has also increased, raking in the second highest operational profit among local brokerages in 2020.
However, this momentum could lose steam, if retail investors continue to turn inactive in the local stock market, as they've been doing during the second half of this year. That's why Hwang's leadership to revamp the brokerage firm's profit structure ― as the firm puts more emphasis on investment banking ― is more than important than ever.
Hwang graduated from Seoul National University in 1990, majoring in business administration. He went on to receive a master's degree in business administration from the same university in 1992. Before joining Kiwoom Securities in 2000, he worked at IBM and Kiwoom Investment.
Meanwhile, former CEO Lee Hyun, who led Kiwoom Securities for the past four years since 2018, was promoted to Daou Kiwoom Group's vice chairman position in mid-December.