President Kwon Seon-joo of the Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK) gives her speech at the bank’s 54th anniversary ceremony held on July 31 at the bank’s head office in Eulzi-ro, Seoul.(Photo:IBK)

The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) celebrated its 54th anniversary on July 31 at its head office in Eulji-ro, downtown Seoul, with some 400 bank employees and guests in attendance, led by President Kwon Seon-joo.

In her congratulatory speech, President Kwon said that the bank should seek out new profit-making opportunities at all of its operational areas, provide tailor-made financial services to its customers for real growth, protect its traditional SME financial market and build customer-centered effective financial channels.

“We should keep on marching as we had in the first half in the second half, too, strong and generous attitudes overcoming any tough situations that may arise to continue our march toward the targets set for the second half,” Kwon said.

She also called for continued reform in operation for the sake of sound management in such areas as the bank’s financial infrastructure, overseas operation and the construction of new channels in banking operations to boost profits without being shaken up by tough situations. 

“We should work toward our goal of being listed among the 100 top banks in the world in 2016,” she said.

The bank also should help start-ups managed by young and eager businessmen with reformed financial products and services, and support SMEs with excellent technologies to advance into the global market and “design a happy future for our customers,” the CEO said.

She recalled that IBK was launched 54 years ago to help SMEs get going when South Korea was poor. “All through the 54 years of its operation, the bank provided its finance especially geared for SMEs, creating jobs in the process. Our small steps became the foot-tracks for SMEs heading toward growth.”

She said IBK overcame rough patches to be where they are today to become part of the history of Korea’s economic growth. The bank has some 15 million customers, she boasted. In the process, the bank’s assets now total 236 trillion won, which would be good anywhere in the world, and the bank has done it again in the first half this year, despite two cuts in the loan interest rates. They did it by expanding deposit accounts and cutting costs.

Among the notable records that the bank achieved in the first half are the selection of its credit card as the Love Your Country Card, securing the largest accompaniment cooperative loan and lead managing refinancing of the Incheon Int’l Airport Railroad Loan and obtaining the license for the IBK Manila branch from the financial authorities in the Philippines.

In the meantime, the bank posted 676.9 billion won in consolidated net profit, including those of all of its affiliates in the first half of this year thanks to a huge increase in fees and interest earnings on its loans. Its affiliates include IBK Capital, IBK Card and IBK Investment and Securities Co., among others. The net profit posted by IBK alone came to 601.7 billion won in the period, up 4.1 percent year-on-year, thanks to increases in corporate loans and increased fee income. The bank’s outstanding loans as of the end of the first half stood at 122.2 trillion won, an increase of 6.1 trillion won from the end of last year, with loans outstanding to SMEs taking up 22.5 percent of total loans.

The ratio of bad loans fell 0.16 percent to 1.35 percent from the same period last year.

The presidemt thanked every officer and staff member of the bank for the its success in helping unravel North Korea’s atrocity in sinking the South Korean naval vessel not engaged in a military exercise, killing over 40 officers and marine contingents. The incident occurred when the South Korean vessel was attacked by torpedoes fired by North Korean submarines. She made those comments when she talked about IBK’s investment in a movie called “Yeonpyeong Sea Battle,” which has become a hit among the moviegoers in Korea.