Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo of KB Financial Group.

Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo of KB Financial Group said the group will look for a life insurance firm this year for takeover to strengthen the group’s fundamentals. He made the comments at a general meeting of the shareholders on March 27. He was answering a question from shareholders to explain the group’s strategy to recover the group’s share price, which has plummeted around 35 percent.

The chairman said there have been indications that the group might have to augment its stability by further diversifying its portfolio, comparing the situation to an archery contest with just the last arrow left to complete the contest with nine arrows already shot.

“We have been preparing to released the last arrow out of the nine already shot to finish the contest,” he said. He said the group will go for strategic M&As in a daring manner to secure future growth engines, but will always be keen on boosting the shareholders’ earnings in conducting the policies.

The chairman also said the group will try to diversify its global operations to boost its share of the profit in southeast Asian countries in particular.

“We need to further explore the financial market in Myanmar while knocking on India’s financial market to launch exploration to take advantage of the great potential of the market,” he chairman said. “We believe securing sustainable growth in the overseas market is very important.”

The keywords for KB Financial Group in 2019 will be “digital” “agile” and “young” following KB Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo's group reorganization and appointments of younger new chief executives for key subsidiaries, according to the holding company’s recent personnel reshuffle.

Among the change that has been highlighted is giving double duty for Hur Yin as KB Kookmin Bank CEO and the head of the group's innovation unit that will oversee all KB companies' digital transformation.

Hur is expected to work closely with KB Financial Chief Digital Officer Han Dong-whan, who is also the senior managing director of KB Kookmin Bank's digital business.

Also, a “control tower” has been set up to strengthen its marketing and service to KB's existing and future conglomerate clients.
“This was all part of KB's One Firm plan,” the spokesperson said, noting its main purpose is to maximize synergy and move fast together under the rapidly changing climate.

Of CEOs of 12 subsidiaries, 11 were born in the 1960s. Chairman Yoon recently named his first female CEO Park Jeong-rim for KB Securities. She will run the brokerage with her co-CEO Kim Seong-hyun.

Under KB Financial's RACE 2018 vision earlier this year, which stands for reinforcement, agile, customer centric and excellence, the group said making the digital transformation is in line with its efforts to become a “first mover” from being a fast follower

KB Financial Group, Inc. is a holding company that engages in providing financial services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Life Insurance, Investment and Securities business.

The Corporate Banking business segment provides services such as loans, overdrafts, deposits, credit facilities and other foreign currency activities. The Retail Banking business segment offers services such as private customer current accounts, savings, deposits, consumer loans and mortgage loans.

The Other Banking business segment provides services relating to banking business besides corporate banking and retail banking services. The Credit Card business segment offers services such as domestic as well as overseas credit and debit card operations. The investment and Securities business segment provides services such as investment banking and brokerage.

The Life Insurance business segment provides products such as life insurance and wealth management. The company was founded on September 29, 2008 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

A scene from the 11th regular shareholders’ meeting for KB Financial Holdings held on March 27 at the KB Financial Group’s head office in Yeouido, Seoul. (Photos: KBFG)