Citibank CEO offers to quit for KB top job
By Choi Kyong-ae
Citibank CEO Ha Yung-ku
Citibank Korea Chief Executive Ha Yung-ku has offered to resign from his post to join the race to become the chief of KB Financial Group, the bank said Wednesday.
In a message sent Tuesday to all employees, Ha said, “When I accepted being one of nine candidates for the KB chairmanship, I notified the board of directors of my intention to resign from my post as CEO whatever the outcome of the KB selection process.”
He continued: “The board has started to select my successor and is considering follow-up measures. To make sure there is no managerial gap, I will perform my duties diligently until my job as CEO ends.”
Ha has served as CEO of the U.S. bank for the past 14 years. He could not be reached by The Korea Times for comment.
A Citibank spokeswoman said Wednesday there was no specific timeframe for Ha’s departure, as the process to select a new CEO has just begun.
Ha’s planned departure comes as Citigroup came up with a broader plan to focus on core businesses across the globe by selling non-core, non-profitable operations.
The bank plans to complete the sale of Citigroup Capital Korea by the end of 2015 “although this is subject to change, depending on how the selling process goes, general market conditions, and regulatory approval,” Citibank Korea said in a statement.
The core businesses of Citibank Korea ― retail banking, credit cards, and corporate banking business ― will not be affected by the financial behemoth’s global reorganization plans, it said.
Analysts said Ha’s decision did not appear to be related to the bank’s weakening presence in Korea.
“Foreign banks such as Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank have suffered declining sales and customer base amid tougher competition with domestic banks. HSBC has recently withdrawn its banking operations from Korea,” said KDB Daewoo Securities analyst Kim Jae-seung.
“They often cite regulations as the biggest hurdle to do business here.”
Citigroup said it will “focus on markets where it has the greatest scale and growth potential” after releasing its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 14.
Meanwhile, with two candidates having dropped out, seven people are currently in the race to become chief of the troubled KB Financial Group. They are Hwang Young-key, a former chairman of KB Financial; Kim Ki-hong, a former senior executive vice president of KB Kookmin Bank; Yoon Jong-kyoo, a former chief financial officer of KB Financial; Lee Dong-gul, a former vice chairman of Shinhan Investment; Ji Dong-hyun, a former vice president of KB Kookmin Card; Yang Seung-woo, chief executive of consulting firm Deloitte Anjin LLC; and Ha.
KB Financial plans to cut this number by mid-October and pick the final candidate by the end of this month.
KB has come under criticism that internal conflicts between two top executives over the change of a banking computer system nearly tore the retailer apart. The former KB Financial Chairman Lim Young-rok and the former KB Kookmin Bank President Lee Kun-ho left the bank last month following the financial authorities’ punitive measures against them for mismanagement.