KB Devoted to Paradigm Shift to be ‘No. 1 KB Financial Group’

President Lee Jae-keun of KB Bank. (Photos: KB Bank)

KB Kookmin Bank topped the commercial bank category at the 2024 National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) for the eighteen time, and for the 10th consecutive year.

The achievement is owed to the bank’s attitude of lending an ear to customers’ voices and pursuing continuous innovation in all business areas after setting a “customer oriented” priority and spearheading innovation as core values.

President Lee Jae-keun of KB Kookmin Bank said, “We will further expand points of contact with customers by completing an omnichannel connecting face-to-face and untact channels to become the No. 1 financial platform, the most reliable, and always going hand-in-hand with customers.

And from now on, KB Kookmin will pursue dramatic changes and challenges as a first mover of future financing for customers’ happiness and a better world.”

KB Kookmin Bank has embarked on a paradigm shift by focusing on customer, on-the-spot and untact service as the direction of its core management.

The financial group’s management wants to establish a foothold to successfully carry out it.

The bank will offer value for customers through business and expert consultations so they can enjoy a pleasant time with the bank.

Clients’ Wider Access through Innovation

KB Kookmin Bank has been ramping up customer access by pursuing innovation of direct and untact channels, based on customer-oriented values and going for a seamless combination between direct and untact channels.

The bank operates “KB 9to6 Bank,” opening until 6 p.m. at 82 branches across the nation.

A survey, conducted early last year on the first anniversary of the debut of the system, showed that 97 percent of respondents were positive.

The bank’s 41 branches have the “lunch time concentration consultation service” in which all staff of individual integrated counters work between noon and 1 p.m.

KB9to6 Banks in operation at 82 branches across the nation.

In the untact channel, KB Kookmin Bank continues to strengthen services for the app, KB Star Banking, which has 15 million MAU, on top of innovation at its customer centers.

As a result, the company finished a project to advance “Mobile Screen Consultation Service,” a new concept business channel, in June 2023.

The service enabled customers to not only receive consultations via the face-to-face channel without installing a separate program, but also to sign up for new products.

Service is available from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., allowing for wider access for customers by opening longer than general business branches.

The Mobile Screen Consultation Service strengthens customers’ convenience in financial services with higher contact needs, such as asset management and loan consultations, and offers differentiated customer experiences.

From now on, the bank plans to offer seamless services without interruption around the clock, year-round by not only further advancing its sales branches, but also completing the omnichannel connecting the channels systematically.

President Lee Hak-jae of Incheon International Airport Corp., Chairman Yang Jong-hee of KB Financial Group, and President Lee Jae-keun of KB Kookmin Bank attend a cake-cutting ceremony to open the bank’s outlet at Incheon Airport Terminal II in Jung-gu, Incheon, on Jan. 16.

In October 2023, KB Kookmin Bank won the rights for the first bank and currency exchange outlet with top access and priority at Incheon International Airport.

The bank’s airport branch, which opened on Jan. 8, 2024, offers currency exchange services around the clock.

The bank has two sales branches, 11 currency exchange centers and one “Star Banking” zone at each terminal.

Dignitaries, including Chairman Yang Jong-hee of KB Financial Group, President Lee Jae-keun of KB Kookmin Bank, Chea Serey, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, Oum Sam Oeun, president and CEO of KB PRASAC Bank, a merged entity between Frasac Microfinance Institution and KB Cambodia Bank, at Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on Feb. 23.

Securing Growth Engines via Overseas Investments and Aggressive Market Expansion

In July 2023, KB Kookmin Bank got the go-ahead for the merger between Frasac Microfinance Institution and KB Cambodia Bank from Cambodian authorities.

In August of the same year, KB Frasac Bank was inaugurated as a merged entity following Cambodia’s commerce ministry’s approval.

Frasac Microfinance Institution ranked 2nd in terms of profit and 4th in terms of assets among Cambodia’s financial institutions, including commercial banks.

The license upgrade and the approval of the merger are expected to expand the scope of businesses, limited to Frasac Finance’s retail financing, to the targeting of corporate entities, such as company financing.

KB Frasac Bank will act as a bridge by connecting the existing business base in provincial areas to new target urban districts, ultimately with the goal of becoming the No. 1 commercial bank in the Southeast Asian country.

They will also release products, such as small loans targeting farmers and fishermen, small business support loans and middle-class housing loans tailored to meet each district’s characteristics.

KB Kookmin Bank’s branch in Singapore has been considered an exemplary case of a Korean bank’s overseas market entry by turning a profit only two years after its market entry.

The branch’s success is owed to the building of a virtuous cycle structure, in which funds raised at low interest rates from Singapore are supplied to other overseas branches in the Southeast Asian region in support of rapid decision-making by relocating Asia’s examination center and brisk commercial investment bank services.

Lends an Ear to Customers’ Voices for Better Customer Experiences

In October, KB Kookmin Bank became Korea’s first commercial bank to set up a “Net Promoter Score (NPS) Management System.” An NPS score measures customer loyalty by looking at their likelihood of recommending a given business.

The NPS Management System analyzes outcomes of NPS surveys using “KB-STA,” an AI technology developed on its own, and supplies the results to related departments.

The bank spearheads efforts to offer differentiated customer experiences and protect financial customers by managing customer experience data based on the bank’s survey outcomes.

KB Kookmin Bank has been improving services from a customer perspective, as the bank has monitored and utilized customers’ real use experiences in the overall customer experience process like products, systems, service and business outlet environment.

The bank is trying to reflect customers’ views into field duties, by regularly surveying experiences of customers with the untact channel KB Star Bank and the customer center.

KB Kookmin Bank is listening to experiences on the use of its major products and services on top of the customer contact channels.

The bank is endeavoring to offer better customer experiences by fully reflecting the needs of customers, as it has expanded “KB 9To6 Bank”.

The feedback is bases on the outcomes of surveys on customer experiences involving services, such as “KB Liiv M Customer Center, “KB 9To6 Bank and untact loan products, which were conducted in 2023.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, President Yoo Byung-tae of Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee, and President Lee Jae-keun of KB Kookmin Bank attend a ceremony to sign an MOU to expand support to jeonse fraud victims in Jongro-gu, Seoul, opn Dec. 13, 2023.

KB Committed of Fulfilling Social Responsibility, Win-Win Financing

KB Kookmin Bank has been conducting social contribution activities in diverse areas, such as regional communities, low-income bracket financing, athletic/cultural and global sectors to put into practice corporate social responsibility and win-win financing.

The bank proactively comes to the aid of marginalized and underprivileged income brackets.

To do this, the bank is implementing programs to support low-income bracket loans worth 372.1 billion won, the commercial bank industry’s largest amount in this category.

The bank is making efforts to help victims of jeonse fraud, a serious social issue for youth, and prevent such incidents.

In February, the bank introduced “KB jeonse safety program” in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee (HUG).

In December 2023, the bank took steps to offer real support and win-win financing to jeonse fraud victims in accordance with an MOU the bank signed with MOLIT and HUG.

Under the victim relief program, the bank supports the costs for jeonse deposit retrieval lawsuits.

The bank operates branches specializing in jeonse fraud in six areas, including Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, Incheon and Busan.

It offers jeonse fraud victims to a 2 percent reduction in new housing fund loans and suspends the repayment of the principal and interest as well as the defers arrearage information notices.

Under a jeonse fraud prevention program, the bank conducts a campaign in cooperation with the famous web-toon writer “Keykney” and contests on jeonse fraud stories to share real world cases and methods of preventing them.

President Lee Jae-keun of KB Kookmin Bank and Kim Jung, head of KB Kookmin Bank trade union, pose after they agreed to expand welfare and personnel systems related to birth and upbringing at the labor-management committee agreement ceremony for 2024 Q2 at KB Kookmin Bank New Building in Yeouido, Seoul, on June 26.

KB Management and Labor Join Forces to Overcome Low-Birth

In June 2024, KB Kookmin Bank took dramatic steps to expand welfare and personnel systems related to childbirth and upbringing to help the nation overcome a low birth rate. Korea’s low birthrate has emerged as a national woe.

Data for 2023 showed that the nation’s total fertility rate stood at 0.72, renewing the lowest-ever mark set in the previous year, which was 0.78.

The figure, the lowest among OECD member countries, is less than half of the OECD countries’ average fertility rate.

Management and labor at the bank have come up with steps to improve childbirth and upbring systems to cope with the low-birth issue.

The steps include ramping up support for medical costs related to infertility, expanding spouses’ leave and encouraging working hour reduction for affected parents.

‘People’s Bank’ Spearheading Sustainable World’

KB Kookmin Bank President Lee said, “We have to take to heart the spreading of good influence to customers and our society, and put it into practice through KB’s products and services by recalling KB Financial Group’s mission ‘Financial Service Delivering Change’.”