IBK announced on Nov. 20 that it received its business license for its Polish subsidiary from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego, or KNF, in Polish).
IBK’s Polish corporation is the only Korean bank in Poland.
It plans to gradually expand its financial support not only to Korean companies operating in Poland, but to Polish companies as well.
With the license, IBK plans to actively promote economic cooperation between the two countries in the defense and energy sectors among others.
Obtaining the business license marked the culmination of IBK’s efforts for approximately two years and six months, since the Korean lender established its Wrocław office in Poland in May 2023.
It was also a testament to IBK President Kim Sung-tae’s extraordinary efforts to establish a new business base in Europe.
The IBK Polish subsidiary will serve as a key hub for the IBK European Belt, serving as IBK’s EU headquarters to support Korea’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expanding into Eastern European countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, which are key production bases in Europe.
“It was a big challenge for IBK to comply with Polish and EU financial regulations including those about IT and information security,” an IBK official said.
“However, we were able to obtain the business license thanks to active support from the Korean government including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.”
Establishment of International Cooperation Network with Luxembourg
IBK announced that it set up an international cooperation network to help Korean SMEs and startups to break into Luxembourg on Dec. 12.
Luxembourg is a global financial hub located in the heart of Europe focusing on fostering the fintech and aerospace industries as future growth engines.
IBK President Kim met with local financial authorities and banking officials and agreed to cooperate to support Korean and Luxembourg companies’ entry into the European market.
First, Kim met with Gilles Roth, Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance to discuss future directions for cooperation in the areas of finance and innovation and to broadly discuss cooperation plans for startup support.
Following this, Kim signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support SMEs and startups in both countries with officials of Spuerkeess, a state-owned bank with expertise in medium-term lending.
Through this agreement, the two institutions will establish a joint fund and provide financial support to Korean and Luxembourgish companies operating in both countries, support Korean startups entering the European market, exchange SME finance researchers and collaborate on ESG and inclusive finance.
Launch of AI Phishing Text Diagnosis Service
IBK announced on Dec. 3 that it has launched the AI Phishing Text Diagnosis Service within its security platform, “i-ONE Guard” embedded within its mobile banking app, i-ONE Bank to prevent non-face-to-face financial incidents.
The AI Phishing Text Diagnosis Service further enhances a self-diagnosis function of i-ONE Guard.
In line with changes in mobile security paradigms, it empowers customers to diagnose security threats on their smartphones and to proactively prevent various financial incidents.
i-ONE Guard is an integrated security platform that provides real-time malware and malicious app detection and blocking capabilities.
IBK customers simply copy and paste the content of a suspicious text message in the app.
The AI analyzes the text’s pattern and content in real time, immediately notifying them of any potential threats.
In particular, it analyzes URL addresses embedded in text messages, enabling the proactive prevention of phishing attacks caused by access to malicious websites.
For this service, IBK collaborated with AhnLab, an information security specialist, to apply differentiated AI-based security technology.
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