Kwon Joon-hak, president of NH NongHyup Bank.

Kwon Joon-hak, president of NH NongHyup Bank, who took office on January 1st, listens to the opinions of the head of Farm and Joy, a smart farm run by young farmers during his visit to the farm in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on Jan. 5. (Photos: NongHyup Bank)

Kwon Joon-hak, the new president of NH NongHyup Bank, said in his inauguration speech on Jan. 4 that he will focus on creating a customer-centered bank that will take the initiative in digital finance.

 
“Digital financial innovation is a key task of NH NongHyup Bank ,so we should focus on securing customer-centered platform competitiveness,” Kwon said.

“By strengthening data-based marketing, forging alliances, and fostering new digital businesses, we will set up a living finance platform that customers can use anytime, anywhere.”

Kwon brought up his review of the previous year. “In 2020, the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis gave a lot of difficulties and hardship to our agriculture, farming communities and customers,” Kwon added.

 
NH NongHyup Bank further enhanced its status and social image and earned more trust from customers by helping small business owners and delivering support funds to the people.

Unfortunately, the global spread of the COVID-19 virus has added to economic and social problems. At times like this, NH NongHyup Bank should join the nation’s efforts to overcome the national crisis and act as a reliable supporter for farmers and customers, the president said.

Kwon pledged to transform NH NongHyup Bank into a leading customer-oriented digital finance bank under three management policies of “focusing on customers and business sites, digital transformation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) management.

“First of all, we need to bring innovation to our marketing activities with a focus on customers and business sites,” Kwon continued.

“Now we need to zero in on customer and business site-centered marketing and infrastructure construction. We need to expand our customer base by providing products that can give customers more value, not just those with good interest rate conditions and marketing optimized for certain target groups. To that end, we will redesign our entire sales channels and business strategies in order to make them play out in favor of customers and business sites.”

Kwon brought up the acceleration of digital financial transformation at NH NongHyup Bank as the second point.

“Digital financial innovation is a key task that can determine the future of NH NongHyup Bank so we need to concentrate a lot of efforts on securing customer-centered platform competitiveness,” Kwon detailed.

“In the meantime, we have steadily developed digital capabilities such as a push for bank-wide digital transformation, open API development, and mobile platform expansion. In the future, we will realize a life finance platform that customers can use anytime, anywhere by strengthening data-based marketing, forging partnerships with big-tech players and fostering new digital businesses.”

“Third, we will take the lead in realizing NH NongHyup Bank’s original value by putting ESG management into practice,” Kwon said with respect to the third point.

“We will contribute to the nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of local communities through finance that conveys the value of engagement and co-prosperity,” he said.

“In addition, we will strengthen our identity as a bank specializing in agricultural finance by creating a green financial ecosystem such as Green New Deal in line with the change of the times.”

“First of all, as a leading trusted bank of Korea, we will take the lead in revving up financial support for enterprises, protecting financial consumers’ rights and spearheading social contribution campaigns,” he added.

Fourth, Kwon played up the basic roles of NH NongHyup Bank in offering financial services for farmers and farming communities.

“A key role of finance is to keep customers' assets safe and grow them and smoothly supply funds to productive sectors. In areas where we excel such as retail banking, agricultural and public finance, we need to maintain our strong competitive advantage through differentiation strategies.” Kwon’s fifth topic was about setting up an agile organizational culture at NH NongHyup Bank.

“Building an agile organizational culture hold the key to detecting and responding to changes in our customers and market in a timely manner,” Kwon explained.

“We will ramp up our execution power and establish a fair and transparent personnel and compensation system so that all NH NongHyup Bank members will feel happiness at work and love their workplaces. At the same time, I ask employees to develop their capabilities after setting career goals to become financial specialists in order to deliver the best value to customers.”