KB Financial Group finalized the takeover of LIG Non-life Insurance Co. on June 28, which makes it the largest financial group in Korea with total assets coming to 428 trillion won. In addition, the group will take over KDB Daewoo Securities, which is likely to put on the market for sale in the second half of the year with total assets of 30 trillion won. The group will be the biggest in terms of assets when it takes over the securities firm.
The group has been sailing smoothly for the past six months since Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu took the helm.
The financial group won U.S. Federal Reserve approval on its registration as a financial group to operate in the United States on June 18. That was an important step to take over LIG’s operational units in the U.S. The group finalized its takeover of LIG at a shareholder’s meeting on June 24 and launched it as KB Non-Life Insurance Co.
Chairman Yoon has been urging improved communication at jobsites as a key factor to bringing the group back to its normal position as the top financial group in the country .
The financial group said its first quarter profit amounted to 605 billion won, the biggest profit among the four major financial groups in the country, up 68.4 percent year-on-year and 198 percent from the preceding quarter, which has been attributed to the stabilized management structure of the group since Yoon’s arrival, putting the group’s operation back to normal.
Corporate loans were handed out to both small and large firms in roughly equal amounts, rising 3.3 percent with the SOHO loans to boost the profitability paying dividends, diversifying the portfolio of loans.
The group’s major affiliates have been doing well. KB Card’s customers’ spending volume amounted to 22.1 trillion won, which helped the card company expand its market share. It has now fully recovered from the loss of customer information of its cardholders. The company secured 875,000 new cardholders in the first quarter, the largest among the card firms with net fee income in the quarter rising 21.9 percent year-on-year and up 4.4 percent from the preceding quarter.
Chairman Yoon remarked that the company should make very good efforts to attract high-quality customers and manage risks very well to produce excellent quarterly results. “We have to strengthen the marketing on its credit loans, SOHO and SME financial market to recover our profitability which has been worsening in recent years,” the chairman said at a breakfast meeting in April.
Chairman Yoon has been known to be open minded about reform. He started a program to give support to corporate customers who give large dividends to its shareholders. The group provided financial support and non-financial service to selected firms in such a way that individual shareholders would make more investments in companies that declare large dividends.
KB Kookmin Bank is proud that the number of users of its smartphone banking service, KB Star Banking, exceeded 1 million as of the end of April.
The new smartphone banking service has been getting a warm reaction from users, as it is simple and convenient to use and is made with customers’ convenience in mind. It can take care of such banking services as checks on balance, fund transfers, certification centers and financial products exclusively selected for smartphones. The applications are easy to use, and the app can store information needed in smartphones.
The bank launched the KB Smart Window Withdrawal Service in April. It allows customers to withdraw funds from their accounts without bankbooks, and the cash withdrawal cards only with certification numbers.
To name two of the better points of the banking service, customers don’t have to carry a bankbook and the bank can do away with the job of issuing bankbooks.
The KB Smart Starphone Installment Savings and Deposits, which was launched by the bank, targets young customers in their 20s and 30s. It had already attracted 430,000 accounts as of the end of May, holding some 1.9 trillion won in balances in those accounts.
Another financial product related with smartphones — KB Talking Installment Savings — has also seen its popularity rise.
Whenever the smartphone is shaken or touched, a cute character appears on the screen with funny expressions, sometimes even mimicking the holder of the smartphone. The character says such words as “hungry” and “save money” or “congratulations,” among other words.
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