By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Kookmin Bank submitted an application to regulators Thursday to seek their endorsement for the establishment of a holding company, the bank said.
``The board approved the plan in the morning to establish a holding company in September. We also applied to the Financial Services Commission to get approval,'' it said in a statement released after the stock market closed.
The country's largest lender plans to spin off its credit card unit next year and put it under the wing of the holding firm in an effort to strengthen its non-banking portfolio. If the split completes as scheduled, the holding firm will have nine subsidiaries.
The nine subsidiaries will be Kookmin Bank, KB Real Estate Trust, KB Asset Management, KB Investment, KB Data Systems, KB Futures, KB Life Insurance, KB Credit Information, and KB Card.
The so-called ``Kookmin Financial Group'' will become the country's fifth financial group, but the largest one in terms of assets.
As of the end of 2007, Kookmin has 232 trillion won in assets, followed by Woori Financial Group with 219 trillion won, Shinhan Financial Group with 208 trillion won and Hana Financial Group with 139 trillion won.
Kookmin launched KB Investment on March 11 months after acquiring Hannuri Investment & Securities, a small brokerage firm, for $290 million, aiming to turn Kookmin into a comprehensive financial services provider.
The bank's CEO Kang Chung-won earlier said Kookmin, which has the largest retail business network among all banks here, is seeking to grab larger shares in the areas of securities, insurance, investment banking and credit card business.
It also wants to consolidate its market dominance by enhancing corporate banking capabilities.
Kookmin has said it has enough cash to buy Korea Exchange Bank, which has the largest overseas network among Korean lenders, from U.S. investment firm Lone Star Funds. It agreed with Lone Star in 2006 to acquire the country's sixth largest lender, but Lone Star cancelled the contract due to prosecutors' investigation of its alleged illegal activities. Lone Star signed a contract with HSBC Holdings late last year to sell the bank, but the outlook for the deal remains uncertain due to the dragging on of legal issues involving Lone Star.