Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo of KB Financial Group.(Photos: KBFG)

Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo of KB Financial Group, who celebrated his first year since being reappointed to lead the financial group in November, is set to work on the consolidation of the group’s leading position in the global financial market next year.

A major factor in the chairman’s strategy is the role of Kookmin Bank, a key affiliate of the group, whose main job would be to take care of the non-banking sector, including insurance, securities, credit card, and other divisions of the business through mergers and acquisitions.

Banking sources said the financial group is set to draw up a new management strategy as Chairman Yoon welcomes his 4th year as the head of the group, as well as the initial year of his reappointment on Nov. 21.

The moves are designed to widen the gap between it and the second-place financial group, with the major theme of the new strategy being “the Completion of Domestic Portfolio thru M&As and Strengthening Growth Engines.”

The past 12 months was start of the chairman’s second term as the top manager of the group, which saw it recapturing the leadership position in among the financial groups in the country from Shinhan Financial Group.

Under Chairman Yoon’s stewardship, the group posted 2.868,8 trillion won in net profit during the first three quarters of this year, outperforming Shinhan’s 2.643,4 trillion won. The group beat its rival financial group continuously for six quarters in a row from last year. If the trend holds up, the group would have achieved 3 trillion won in net profit this year for two consecutive years, joining the coveted “3 Trillion Won Club” again this year.

The group expanded the number of multiple finance branches to 71 this year with the branches adding wealth management as an important part of their operations so that the group would continue to hold on to its reputation as the top financial groups in the country.

KB Financial’s total assets came to 477.7 trillion won as of Nov. 30, up 9.4 percent on-year leading all other financial groups in the sector. The group showed its presence in the global financial sector, too, with Kookmin Bank taking over a 22 percent stake in a retail bank, the Bucohin Bank, in Indonesia in June.

The group has also been speeding up its moves in the investment banking area by having a number of its offices in the strategic cities in the world including Hong Kong, New York and London to take up the CIB operations to ultimately to expand its operation in the global project financing arena.

However, the group still has some work to do to continue to keep its leading position in the financial industry. Its ROA stood at 0.84 percent and ROE at 11.1 percent this year so far which need to be improved as they fell 0.08 percentage points and 0.34 percent from the preceding year.

Despite the group’s efforts to boost the non-banking sector’s profit, the banking sector led by Kookmin Bank dominated the group’s total profit with 69.7 percent share, up 1.6 percent from the preceding year.

 An official of the group said the group will be able to strengthen its leading position by strengthening the IB sector operation overseas, speeding up digitalization while expanding the number of the multiple operational outlets so that no rival financial group would come close to catch up with the group next year.

KB Financial Group Inc., a financial holding company, provides a range of banking and related financial services to consumers and corporations in South Korea and internationally. It operates through Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Securities Business, Non-life Insurance Business, Credit Card Business, and Life Insurance Business segments.

KB Financial Group Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Seoul.

A view of the KB Financial Group building in Yeouido, Seoul.