In recognition of her achievements in heading the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), President Kwon Seon-joo won the Financial Person of the Year award at the Korea Grand Financial Awards. She took home the prize at the Night of the Financial Community, which was held at the Westin-Chosun Hotel in Seoul on Dec. 7.
In December 2013, President Kwon became the first woman to be the head of a bank in the financial industry’s 113 year history. Last year, her initial year as CEO of IBK, the bank’s net profit climbed to 1.32 trillion won, up 20.8 percent year-on-year. This year, too, the bank’s net profit through the third quarter is up 4.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
When she arrived at the bank, Kwon declared that she would strive to make IBK one of the 100 largest banks in the world during her term, and she has been working on it ever since. Everywhere she goes, the spotlight has followed her. In February last year, Fortune magazine put her 47th on its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world and the 12th most-influential female business leader in the Asia-Pacific region.
She has always claimed that a bank should be like an umbrella to its customers, especially to SMEs, whose financials are not always sunny. She also has been emphasizing that technology financing is the only way for IBK to keep its operation sound in the days ahead, including Fintech.
The IBK’s daring financial support saved some of the SMEs that found themselves in critical trouble financially. Samkwang Enterprise, located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province is a good example of the bank’s financial support that paid off. The small company set up in July last year producing mobile racks and cabinets for offices. With 13 employees, it had seed money of 200 million won, but the company needed additional operational funds to keep it afloat. The company asked for loans from financial institutions to no avail due to a lack of collateral. No bank was willing to provide loans to the company.
But IBK provided 200 million won in loans, impressed by the company’s excellent technologies, and strong will on the part of its employees to succeed.
As a result, the company generated 1.2 billion won in sales in four months since receiving the loan. This year, the company expects its sales will reach around 4 billion won.
On the plan for an Internet bank, the IBK president said she plans to develop the bank’s “i-One Bank” into a professional level Internet exclusive bank, and from next year the bank will go after the job.
She said regulations on the banks should be changed to allow them to fully go after the development of Internet banks. It takes time, and the government has to do its part. IBK will take the time that is needed to develop the its Fintech capacity, to meet the level of what the customers want in financial-technology related banking.
She added that customers already have a pretty good idea of what they can get out of Fintech banking. They hold consultations offline, but they also want online services too, the CEO said, adding that launching “omniline” service which combines off- and online should be established as soon as possible to give customers the kind of the services they want.
IBK is still the leader among banks in providing loans to SMEs. Now, Kwon has been working on the financial services for individual customers. IBK launched four multi-financial service branches in cooperation with IBK Investment and Securities to show what the IBK’s main area of operation would be like next year.
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