On Jan. 2, IBK held the 2025 Business Kick-off Ceremony attended by Bank President Kim Sung-tae and about 200 employees.
“This year is expected to face a difficult situation with changes in internal and external political situations and economic uncertainties that we have never experienced before,” Kim said in his New Year’s message “Let’s make a new leap forward from the current crisis into an opportunity by focusing on the unchanging needs of customers and creating new value.”
To this end, he proposed five key priorities. They were: strengthening SME financing as a core value; enhancing future value for customers and society; creating convergence value through balanced growth by sector; making IBK a stronger bank through thorough soundness and profitability management; and establishing a stable financial system.
“Above all, by fulfilling the basic roles of IBK, we will actively support SMEs and small and medium-sized enterprises to overcome the crisis, while contributing to the expansion of the country’s future growth drivers by supporting the strengthening of SMEs’ technological capabilities, and enhancing the roles of growth ladders for each stage of companies’ lifecycles, thereby priming the pump for increasing the vitality of the Korean economy,” Kim added.
Kim said he will strive to establish an enterprise-wide service system to enhance customer value; resolve the imbalance between interest and non-interest banking and subsidiary sectors; manage profitability by reducing bad debt costs and procurement costs; and promote digital innovation; strengthen consumer protection, such as financial fraud prevention; and maintain and secure customer trust by establishing an internal control management system.
After the business kick-off ceremony, Kim visited the Suwon Small Business Association and Gucheon-dong Tool Market to listen to the voices of those in the field.
IBK’s First-Ever Exhibition at CES 2025
IBK announced that it successfully wrapped up the exhibition of the IBK Promotion Center and the IBK Creativity Center at CES 2025 in Las Vegas from Jan. 7 to 10.
The IBK Promotion Pavilion featured various content, such as videos and games of companies that IBK invested in and fostered, including the Future Growth Model, IBK BOX, and i-ONE Bank, which supports sustainable growth of customers through the convergence of AI and finance.
In particular, the Future Growth Model, which predicts the future growth of venture startups through AI analysis of IBK’s 63 years of data on SMEs, was implemented and visitors themselves enjoyed using it directly on the spot.
Content like immersive videos, VR games, K-content videos and others produced in collaboration with startups that IBK invested in and nurtured were used to showcase the technological capabilities of promising Korean companies to visitors from around the world.
At the IBK Changgong Pavilion, eight startups supported by IBK Changgong, IBK’s startup incubation platform, participated in the exhibition and drew a lot of attention from visitors by showcasing their excellent innovative technologies.
The eight startups selected from about 900 in the IBK incubator program went through a preparation program to strengthen their capabilities before participating in CES, and received programs by the IBK Silicon Valley Desk such as seminars on strategies for entering the United States and investor relations.
Strategic Cooperation with KOTRA to Support Innovative Korean Venture Startups
IBK announced that it signed a business agreement with KOTRA to support the global expansion and scale-up of innovative Korean venture startups at the Korea Pavilion at CES in Las Vegas.
Through the agreement, the two organizations will support the overseas expansion of innovative Korean venture startups and attract investment, identify promising Korean venture startups for global expansion, and conduct joint projects to support their overseas expansion.
The cooperation between IBK and KOTRA is expected to be an important opportunity to help innovative Korean venture startups break into overseas markets more practically and effectively.
“We will do everything we can do to resolve obstacles to innovative Korean venture startups’ overseas expansion and boost the effectiveness of related policies,” an IBK official said.
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