“I will rebuild Woori Bank as a corporate banking powerhouse,” Cho Byung-kyu told reporters on his first day as the new president of Woori Bank on July 3.
Cho was officially inaugurated as head of Woori Bank at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held earlier on the day. Cho will serve as president of Woori Bank until the end of December 2024.
“Corporate banking is where I have spent the largest amount of time at banks,” Cho said. “Woori Bank specializes in corporate banking, which is the founding philosophy of Woori Bank. I will focus on the bank’s founding philosophy.”
In his inaugural speech, the word “corporate banking” appeared as a key term.
“Let Woori Bank lead the market with differentiated services as a master of corporate finance and grow together with companies,” said Cho.
“Let’s maximize our corporate finance sales power by strengthening support for small and medium-sized enterprises and investing in new and promising companies.”
Cho is a seasoned corporate banking expert.
Since joining Woori Bank’s predecessor, Commercial Bank of Korea, in 1992, Cho has served as head of corporate banking at the head office, head of corporate banking for large companies and head of the Gangbuk Sales Headquarters.
Last year, he served as the Executive Vice President of the Corporate Banking Group at Woori Bank.
When he was head of the corporate branch of the head office, the corporate branch ranked first and second in the bank's key performance indicator (KPI) rankings in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Woori Financial Chairman Lim Jong-ryong is said to have placed great confidence in Cho’s experience and ability.
“What Chairman Lim has always emphasized is that we should grow and advance corporate finance as part of national development,” Cho said.
“Since I am on the same wavelength with Chairman Lim, I will concentrate more on that.”
Regarding an organizational culture transformation that Chairman Lim is promoting, Cho said.
“I think that if we can make sure that employees who work really hard are well recognized in at Woori Bank and they are reward for those things, I think, it will have a good influence on clients whom we serve.”
Cho said he will focus on strengthening sales in the field as he believes that everything takes place in the field and those in the field can find solutions in the field.
After taking office as head of Woori Bank, Cho will visit major corporate customers and small businesses in the Seoul metropolitan area to collect opinions.
In the meantime, Woori Bank announced on July 5 that it held a summer goods delivery ceremony at Cheonan City Hall in Cheonan of South Chungcheong Province, with the Ministry of Environment, the Korea Climate and Environment Network, and civic organizations to support people vulnerable to heat waves in summer such as the elderly and low-income groups.
At the event, summer items such as cool mats were delivered to low-income households in Cheonan City.
The summer items will be delivered to 2,100 households vulnerable to summer heat such as the elderly living alone and the marginalized and 50 social welfare centers.
In addition, Woori Bank plans to carry out various support projects, including information on summer health care with related organizations such as the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Climate and Environment Network, to improve vulnerable people’s responses to heat wave across the country.
“Climate change is a matter of survival for the socially vulnerable,” a Woori Bank official said. “We hope that through this support project, marginalized neighbors suffering from the heat wave will be able to spend a healthy and safe summer this year.”
Since June, Woori Bank has been participating in the Oasis Seoul Project which is being promoted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to ensure the safety of Seoul citizens during heat waves in summer for the first time as a financial company.
The bank has been steadily making efforts to solve the climate crisis by providing free drinking water at about 300 branches in Seoul along with government offices and Starbucks Korea.
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