Business - The Korea Times

Kyobo Life Planet's CEO serves another term

Kyobo Life Planet CEO Lee Hak-sang / Courtesy of Kyobo Life PlanetBy Anna J. ParkKyobo Life Planet's long-serving CEO Lee Hak-sang has been elected to serve another two years at the internet-only life insurance company.The company said it held an extraordinary shareholders general meeting earlier this week, voting in favor of granting Lee another two-year term as CEO, which will end in September 2022. Since the CEO first took the helm of the nation's first online-only insurance company back in December 2013, Lee has maintained his position for the last seven years. As the first CEO of the first internet-exclusive insurance firm here, Lee is considered to have successfully led an “insurtech” ― the incorporation of technological innovations into traditional insurance business models ― trend in the country, contributing to the expansion of the digital insurance market. The CEO has also closely partnered with various innovative IT-based platform companies, such as Kakao Pay, Toss and Bank Salad, spearheading the country's mobile insurance market growth. “As the CEO of t

Sep 17, 2020By Anna J. Park

Kyobo Life Planet's CEO serves another term

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. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungKB 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 finan

Sep 17, 2020By Lee Min-hyung

KB chief tasked with reinforcing digital, global business

State-run banks lag in gender representation

By Kim Bo-eunKorea Development Bank's headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul / Korea Times fileThe Moon Jae-in government has emphasized the importance of gender representation at public institutions, but three years in, state-run banks still have some of the lowest numbers of female executives.The Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) have no female executives, according to the government's classification of executives as being board members.This is the poorest representation among the eight institutions under the Financial Services Commission ― women make up 10 percent of the executives at the institutions.This compares with the 21.1 percent at all 129 state-run and quasi-government institutions.State-run lenders show poor representation despite growing movements around the world to improve gender representation.Citigroup stated last week it appointed retail banking head Jane Fraser as the group's next CEO, becoming the first among the top 10 U.S. banking groups to appoint a female chief. Korea's financial sector has also begun seeing increasing appointments o

Sep 16, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

State-run banks lag in gender representation

For senior citizens living alone

Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, right, and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) President Wi Seong-bak, left, pose with Comprehensive Support Center for Elderly Living Alone General Manager Kim Hyun-mi in Seoul, Tuesday. Woori and the KDIC announced Wednesday they donated 2,000 boxes of agricultural products for senior citizens living alone. / Courtesy of Woori Financial Group

Sep 16, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Citibank passive on job creation here

gettyimagesbankCitibank Korea interim CEO Yoo Myung-soon / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Park Jae-hyukCitibank Korea was found to have hired very few employees here over the past nine years, in contrast to domestic commercial banks that have “created” jobs even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Given that its union has regarded this issue as a top priority, job creation is expected to become a major issue for the bank's next CEO who will be appointed in October.According to the Citibank Korea union, Wednesday, the U.S. banking giant's local subsidiary has not recruited new employees in Korea after last hiring around 50 new workers in 2011. It decided not to recruit new employees again this year.Although the bank has hired experienced workers whenever there were retirements, the number of employees it hired remained low: nine in 2019, 16 in 2018 and six in 2017.The reluctance toward creating jobs has caused criticism, because another foreign commercial bank here, Standard Chartered (SC) Bank Korea, has annually hired dozens of workers over the past years. SC Bank Korea empl

Sep 16, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Why does Kakao want an insurer?

KakaoPay CEO Ryu Young-joon / Courtesy of KakaoPayBy Kim Bo-eunQuestions are arising over KakaoPay's plan to establish a non-life insurance arm, as the profitability of the sector has been deteriorating.The financial services platform's plan is to set up a digital insurer that will focus on simple insurance policies. It has decided not to partner with other insurers, an official confirmed Monday.While profitability has been sluggish for non-life insurers, KakaoPay's plan is to develop a niche market that existing players do not cover."We want to offer policies that mobile-focused users seek. For example, a person may want to be insured for only a certain risk among the many covered by an existing product," a KakaoPay official said.While insurance premiums may be small, KakaoPay's rationale is that its platform will be able to attract large amounts of traffic that will guarantee a profit for the insurance firm.Currently, KakaoPay offers simple products from other insurers, such as travel insurance. It acquired insurance platform startup Inbyu last year, securing a general agency to se

Sep 14, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

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 BankBy Kim Bo-eunStandard 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 launc

Sep 13, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Korea's money supply grows at fastest clip in nearly 11 years in July

Korea's money supply grew at the fastest pace in nearly 11 years in July as household and corporate lending grew amid a long streak of low rates and the new coronavirus outbreak. / Korea Times fileSouth Korea's money supply grew at the fastest pace in nearly 11 years in July as household and corporate lending grew amid a long streak of low rates and the new coronavirus outbreak, central bank data showed Friday.The country's M2 stood at 3,092.8 trillion won (US$2.6 trillion) as of end-July, up 10.1 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).It accelerated from a 9.9 percent on-year gain in June and marked the fastest on-year rise since 10.5 percent in October 2009.Compared with the previous month, M2 also rose 0.5 percent in July, decelerating from a 0.8 percent on-month increase in June.M2 is a measure of the money supply that counts cash, demand deposits and other near money that is easily convertible to cash.The BOK said the M2 continued to rise as households and businesses took out loans to secure funds amid the COVID-19 outbreak.South

Sep 11, 2020By Kim Jae-heun

Korea's money supply grows at fastest clip in nearly 11 years in July

KDB's Lee Dong-gull begins second term

By Kim Bo-eunKorea Development Bank Chairman Lee Dong-gullKorea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Lee Dong-gull secured a second term, Thursday.Lee, who began his first term on Sept. 11, 2017, will head the state-run lender for another three years. His term will end on Sept. 10, 2023.The KDB chief is recommended by the Financial Services Commission chairman and appointed by the President. Lee is known to have wished to step down from the position, but current circumstances involving COVID-19 are seen to have made authorities persuade the incumbent chairman to stay for another term, given KDB's role as a state-run bankAnother factor may be the collapse of the Asiana Airlines deal. KDB leads Asiana's creditors.Lee had been determined to lead the sale of the embattled Asiana Airlines, but the deal with Hyundai Development Company (HDC) fell through after the entities failed to narrow their differences. Lee is known to have offered for creditors to take the burden on up to 1 trillion won in HDC's acquisition of the air carrier, but HDC has insisted on a second round of inspections of the c

Sep 10, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Major financial groups strengthen cooperation with startups

By Anna J. ParkIn line with major financial groups' plans to invest tens of trillions of won over the next five years in the government-led Korean New Deal initiatives, the firms' close cooperation with startup businesses is becoming ever more prevalent.The major financial groups each have their own programs for supporting burgeoning startups, yet such moves will now be an integral part of their business strategy in this full-on digital transformation period accelerated by the global pandemic. Their cooperation with startups mostly occur in one of two ways ― applying innovative interfaces and platforms developed by fintech firms or jointly developing new services for customers. Woori Financial Group's DINNO LABUnder the banner of “DINNO LAB,” Woori Financial Group selected 15 startup companies earlier this year out of 187 contestants to support the their efforts for digital innovation. The financial group aims to not only support the venture firms, but also adopt bright innovative ideas from young entrepreneurs that will help with the financial group's management. That's

Sep 10, 2020By Anna J. Park

Banking & Finance