KT revamping financial businesses
From left are KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo, BC Card CEO nominee Choi Won-seok and K bank CEO nominee Suh Ho-sung / Courtesy of each company
By Park Jae-hyuk
KT is drawing attention for its accelerated efforts to revamp its financial businesses to take the lead in the data-driven financial industry, which is considered to be a high-priority following the rise of the data economy.
Last week, BC Card announced FnPricing CEO Choi Won-seok will replace incumbent CEO Lee Dong-myun, who was appointed head of the credit card issuer just a year ago.
The announcement is interpreted as “surprise” by many industry insiders because BC Card has a track record of letting KT executives lead the company, since KT is the largest shareholder of the card firm with a 69.54 percent stake. Although Choi has served as a non-executive director of BC Card over the past six years, he has never worked for the telecom giant.
BC Card said the CEO nominee is expected to create synergy with its internet-only banking subsidiary K bank and to push ahead with financial strategies tailored for KT, based on his expertise in finance and IT.
“By integrating BC Card's extensive payment, commerce and financial infrastructures with KT's advanced capabilities in artificial intelligence and big data, we will establish a consumer-oriented payment, consumption and financial platform to lead the market,” Choi was quoted as saying in a press release.
His nomination was announced just three weeks after K bank hired Hankook Tire & Technology Senior Vice President Suh Ho-sung as its new leader, without following its long-standing custom of giving the chief executive seat to executives from KT, which has controlled the bank through its largest shareholder, BC Card, owning a 34 percent stake.
Suh has built expertise in strategy and marketing for financial services firms, based on his career at Samsung Life Insurance, Bain & Company and Hyundai Motor Group's financial services units ― Hyundai Card, Hyundai Motor Securities and Fubon Hyundai Life Insurance.
K bank hopes his experience will help win additional investments from global investors, so it can catch up with the leading player Kakao Bank and outperform Toss Bank, another digital bank that will open this year.
On top of hiring outside experts, KT is also said to consider acquiring a stake in Banksalad, a domestic fintech startup specializing in asset management services. According to industry sources, the fintech firm is in talks with about 20 institutional investors and companies here to attract investments collectively worth 100 billion won ($89 million).
KT is mentioned as one of those companies, although Banksalad said it is too early to comment on whether or not the mobile carrier will make an investment. A KT spokeswoman denied reports about its acquisition of Banksalad shares.
However, given Webcash, another fintech firm providing a platform for B2B transactions, is also mentioned as an investment target of KT, market observers expect the company will continue focusing on its data-driven financial business.
KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo plans to cut the company's reliance on the saturated telecommunication business, saying its acquisition deals in various sectors will be seen throughout this year.