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.
Daegu Bank rebrands to iM Bank as part of nationwide expansion
The headquarters of Daegu Bank / Courtesy of Daegu Bank
By Anna J. Park
Starting from June 5, DGB Daegu Bank will be renamed to iM Bank, aiming to strengthen its new identity as a commercial bank nationwide.
This is a decision made at the bank's shareholders' meeting held in late May, after the bank earned the approval from the financial authorities to make the transition from a regional bank to a commercial one earlier in the month.
This will be the first case of a regional bank changing its name, after earning the authorities' approval to transition to a commercial bank.
Besides the bank, other affiliates of the DGB Financial Group will be undergoing the renaming process as well. HI Investment & Securities will be renamed to iM Securities from Wednesday, while DGB Life Insurance will be renamed to iM Life Insurance, and HI Asset Management to iM Asset Management. In total, the names of the financial group's eight banking and non-banking subsidiaries will be changed to the iM brand.
The iM brand was originally used to promote its mobile banking division. Back in 2015, DGB Daegu Bank came up with iM Bank, an abbreviation for "I am a bank," as its own mobile banking brand. Since then, it has remained as a key part of the bank, representing the lender's drive for innovation and mobile growth.
There were concerns within the bank about using iM Bank as the new name of the lender. Some pointed out that the iM brand started as a mobile banking brand, and thus it might not be appropriate to use it as the main name of the bank, considering the prestige of a commercial bank.
Despite such concerns, the bank has decided to rename itself to the mobile brand, as it aligns with the bank's key growth strategy. As the new name suggests, the lender plans to expand its business areas nationwide, mainly by strengthening the competitiveness of its mobile banking platform.
The new branding is also expected to remove the bank's previous image associated with the city of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province and to reinforce the new identity of a mobile-focused commercial bank.
"The bank acknowledged that there were limitations with the bank's previous identity and brand that were focused on a specific region, especially when expanding into the Seoul metropolitan area is crucial for the growth," an official from the bank said. "The bank has decided to make the most of the existing iM Bank brand," the official added.