KB Kookmin Bank to speed up global push and digital campaign next year: CEO

[Photo by KB Kookmin Bank]

KB Kookmin Bank will actively seek for merger and acquisition (M&A) targets overseas next year to bolster its global business that has lagged behind its local peers and invest 2 trillion won ($1.71 billion) for digital transformation over the next six years, said Hur Yin, chief executive of the Korean lender.

“We’ll go all-out efforts to nurture the bank’s overseas business as the top of the industry,” Hur, 58, said in an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper last week. Hur was approved by shareholders last month to hold onto his seat for another year until November 2020. The CEO with maximum three-year term goes under confidence vote from shareholders every year.

Hur, as one of the youngest chief in Korean lenders, has been bold in management reshuffle to improve governance and efficiency in the bank. As part of the efforts, he replaced vice chief and some of senior executives last year.

Hur after being reappointed for a second term left for a five-day business trip to China, Hong Kong and Cambodia last week to cheer the performance of overseas employees over the past year and also monitor the bank’s global network.

KB Kookmin Bank reported a cumulative profit of 2.01 trillion won (1.71 billion) from January to September this year, down 3.5 percent from a year ago. Of the total, only 1.8 percent or 59.5 billion won came from its global operations. Net income in the overseas business plunged 39 percent during the period.

“I visited Myanmar and Cambodia last year. We’re now targeting the ASEAN countries and India to aggressively expand the business there next year,” Hur added.

KB Kookmin Bank operates its branches, local entities and liaison offices in Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia with 583 staffs. Its assets in the nations came at 776.4 billion won as of now, surging 94.1 percent from 400 billion won as of the end of June 2017.

To further increase the assets to the 1 trillion won level, the bank now is seeking merger and acquisition opportunities overseas.

Hur also vowed commitment to corporate digitalization when returning to home, with a 2 trillion investment for the next six years.

As part of that, KB Kookmin Bank will start test operation of its “The K Project” for digital transformation (digitalization of corporate management) in February next year. Customers do not have to visit a branch to submit necessary documents for lending, and the bank is able to reduce human workload under the project using its mobile application. The official launch is due in October 2020.

“The K Project will help minimize unnecessary, simple and repetitive work for employees, achieve easier and faster work process and increase the customers’ convenience,” Hur emphasized. “We’re planning to invest 2 trillion won in digital transition and raise 4,000 experts in the field until 2025.”

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]