President Kim Han-jo of Korea Exchange Bank.

“The buck stops here,” was written on a signboard and placed on the desk of late U.S. President Harry Truman in the Oval Office at the White House when he was the Chief Executive. He was the U.S. president who ordered the drop of nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 during the Pacific War, which led to the Japanese surrender to end the war. The saying means that the person who occupies the desk will take the ultimate responsibility for what happens.

What new President of Korea Exchange Bank Kim Han-jo means by quoting the U.S. president’s famous words is that he will take responsibility for what the officers and staff have done in their work for the bank so, therefore, they should work hard.

No one figured Kim would be the next CEO of KEB even early in the year, since his predecessor Yun Yong-ro seemed to have no problem with serving another term since he was thought to have done a good job running KEB after its takeover by Hana Financial Group last year.

But it was a different story when the lid was opened in March with President Kim Han-jo of KEB Capital, a career KEB man who served with the bank for around 32 years, emerging as the new president of KEB and opening a new age for the bank.

Kim went through various jobs while working at KEB from personal finance and corporate finance to service overseas during his long career. He joined the bank in 1982 soon after graduating from Yonsei University as a French major. His last position at KEB was vice president in 2013 after which he moved to KEB Capital as its president the same year.

KEB was taken over by Hana Financial Group in 2013 and joined Hana Bank as an affiliate of the group. Over the past two years, the two banks have increased their customer base to over 8 million with the number of active customers coming to over 3 million, due to former President Yun’s drive to woo customers by all means, despite deteriorating profits.

In 2011, KEB’s annual profit stood at 1.62 trillion won, but it fell to 625.8 billion won, yet maintained its position among the top echelon of commercial banks in terms of earnings. But the bank’s earnings fell to 365.7 billion won, a drop of 41 percent YoY, while Hana Bank increased its profit during the difficult time for all banks, which had people wondering what happened to KEB.

The new CEO said he will stick to the profit base built by his predecessor and turn the bank around with the help of everyone at the bank working hard to recover productivity and profit, especially by expanding the SOHO and SME corporate customers. Relations between the union and management should also be improved, which have been rough since the merger.

The new president has been doing all he can to build good relations with the union since his arrival just he did while with KEB Capital. The union, however, did not welcome the new CEO’s overtures toward the union whole-heartedly and some still show a hostile attitude for KEB management, making an issue out of some part of the new CEO’s inaugural speech.

The union appears to be uneasy about the CEO’s inaugural speech in which he said they should boost productivity through the effective management of manpower and the bank’s branches, and they should enhance the bank’s competitive power with improved IT systems. What some in the union have been concerned with in his speech were the comments on the restructuring of manpower and integration of IT systems between the holding company, KEB, and Hana Bank, which could reduce the manpower needed to run the systems.

CEO Kim has tried to calm the union by saying that it is unnecessary worry, denying any plan for personnel restructuring at KEB, but the bank has to improve its earnings and everyone should redouble their efforts, especially the senior officers and staff. He said he will personally check the performance of employees at the level of deputy managers who have been with the bank for over 20 years and make personnel moves based on the performance results.