By Kim Tong-hyung
Despite his reputation as a hard-charging boss, KB Financial Chairman Euh Yoon-dae knows about patience and practices it.
This is obvious even as he attempts to inject pace and purpose into rebuilding KB, which is seeking to transform itself from a languid banking giant punching below its weight into a juggernaut driven by decisiveness and efficiency.
The aspirations are ambitious but the group’s transition process has been absent of swagger and speechifying, as Euh seems to be taking his time on every critical decision and move as if obsessed with measuring them perfectly.
To borrow a boxing analogy, Euh has been a puncher playing the game of a technician. Still, everyone knows there’s a big swing left in him.
And judging by his recent activities and comments, Euh now appears to have a clearer idea on how he wants to carve out his legacy as a banker.
There are voices here that banking is essentially a domestic business and should stay as one. These thoughts are carrying more weight amid the financial crisis, which shed light on the excessive and ill-understood risks that had been taken by global lenders in recent years.
Euh will have none of this argument as he begins to show more urgency and aggressiveness to further integrate KB’s business internationally.
Euh has been stacking up his airline mileage in the past year attempting to detect and exploit business opportunities around the world.
He is currently in London for the ongoing G100 Europe meetings, which are bringing together the current and recent CEOs of global companies to share ideas over inspiring growth and innovation, becoming the first Korean executive to take part in the network.
Euh’s stay in London will be followed by a hectic schedule that includes stops in Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where he plans to meet potential investors from private companies and governments over a broad range of subjects.
``While Korea’s relationship with countries in the Middle East has become tighter due to cooperation in energy-related areas like nuclear power plants, the level of exchanges in the financial sector has lagged behind advances on the industrial side. We believe our investor relations tour could allow us to expand our global network and pave the way for other Korean companies,’’ a KB executive said.
``During his meetings in different cities, Euh will also present KB’s efforts to improve corporate efficiency and improve shareholder value, pitching the company’s vision for future development to potential investors.’’
Euh was also the lone Korean representative at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) CEO summit held earlier this month in Bangkok, Thailand, where top bankers and policymakers from Asian countries discussed financial sector collaboration and the regional effect of the Basel III capital reserve rules.
Since October last year, he has been a member of the IIF’s board of directors along with global financial bigwigs like Deutsche Bank Chairman Josef Ackermann and Goldman Sachs CEO Gary Cohn.
He also led a group of bankers accompanying Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan and Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo to the International Monetary Fund summit in Washington last year, where policymakers expect to share ideas to defuse threats posed by debt problems in developed economies.
Euh’s efforts to raise KB’s global file have been accompanied by changes at the group’s affiliates, which are looking to broaden the reach of their products and services and hire more international talent.
Most Korean banks have built their global business efforts around financing Korean companies operating internationally. KB is more ambitious, vowing to compete pound-for-pound with local players abroad for both business and retail customers.
KB Kookmin Bank is spearheading the group’s attempt to go global as it looks to expand to developing economies like China, Brazil, India and Indonesia and eventually to the United States and Japan. While these are difficult times to chase big merger and acquisition deals, Euh has repeatedly said he won’t shy away should the right opportunity come.
It could be said that KB’s efforts to expand outwards is backed by strengthened confidence at home. Since taking the management helm in July 2010, he has been concentrating on bringing innovation and agility back to the group that had been clobbered by its quicker rivals in past years.
Retail banking has been KB’s traditional strength, but Euh has been determined to have the company flex larger muscles in corporate finance, which believes will generate a significant part of the company’s growth in coming years.
KB Kookmin Bank’s ``Hidden Star 500’’ program, which provides tailored financial products for promising start-ups and small- to medium-sized businesses, has seen the group’s increased presence in investment banking.
KB has also been trying to lure younger customers in its retail businesses and has ambitiously launched a youth banking project targeting university students and office workers in their 20s and 30s. So far the product, dubbed KB Rock Star, has attracted more than 200,000 customers.