According to KB Financial Group, Chairman Yang Jong-hee expressed his concern in his New Year’s message to employees on Feb. 2.
“This year is expected to be a year of chaos and upheaval, which will be more unpredictable than ever before,” Yang said. “Internal and external uncertainties are expanding. It is difficult to predict what will take place in 2025 due to various conflicting factors in our society.”
“Under these circumstances, KB Financial Group needs to show solid trust and stability to offset the anxiety of customers and the market,” Yang said, promising to demonstrate KB’s will to return unchanged value to customers.
“We will continue to implement our plans to enhance corporate value through value-up initiatives,” Yang said.
“We will unwaveringly carry out activities that contribute to the development of our society such as enhancing shareholder return, capital ratio management, and raising return on risk-weighted assets (RoRWA).”
KB Financial Group will ensure that these activities lead to enhanced customer value.
“We will continue to forge heartwarming partnerships’ where everyone can grow together,” Yang emphasized, explaining that people live in a world where boundaries are broken and sustainable growth is difficult to achieve alone.
“Companies in non-financial industries and big tech and platform companies are no longer our competitors, but partners in creating a new path,” Yang said.
“We should provide our products and services through embedded finance and acquire new customers from our partners to create a common ecosystem where we can grow and prosper together.”
“Rather than competing with our products and services, we can achieve a much greater impact and success when we combine them with other companies’ platforms and services,” Yang continued.
“Based on these achievements, we should continue to play a role as a pillar of support for our neighbors and society by creating impactful social values such as care projects and support for small businesses.”
Yang also called for further increasing the financial group’s capabilities through “efficiency and innovation” to return value to shareholders, the market, customers and society.
“KB Financial Group needs to check up on whether capital is being efficiently allocated to all of our businesses,” Yang said.
“Unlike in the past, everything has to be backed by accurate data, including customer return, a net promoter score (NPS) and a return on equity (ROE).”
“KB Financial Group has slimmed down its headquarters organization since December to boost its operational efficiency,” Yang said.
“We have established a management system to bring both sophistication and efficiency to operations abroad in the same way as in Korea.”
Chairman’s letter to global investors
On Jan. 6, KB Financial Group sent a letter to its major overseas investors, offering greetings for the New Year and reaffirming its commitment to implementing a value-up plan announced in October.
“We deeply understand that shareholders’ concerns about the business environment and the value-up program are growing due to the volatility of interest rates and exchange rates amidst a tough environment facing Korea,” Yang said in the letter.
“KB Financial Group takes the current situation very seriously,”
“We reiterate that KB Financial Group will steadily pursue its sustainable valuation plan which we promised to shareholders through a public disclosure in October,” Yang said, emphasizing KB Financial Group’s strong commitment to implementing its value-up plan.
“KB Financial Group will continue to enhance its earnings power based on its strength of a balanced portfolio, even in the face of growing internal and external uncertainties,” a KB Financial Group official said.
“It will successfully overcome the challenge of transitioning from quantitative to qualitative growth through its RoRWA-centered growth strategy.”
Meanwhile, KB Financial has been actively communicating with investors, sending letters to major global investment institutions and holding group and one-on-one meetings immediately after a martial law decree by President Yoon Suk-yeol on Dec. 9 to prevent market confusion.
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