'Corona Firefighter' Finding Points in the Style of Amhaeng-eosa... Yoon Jong-won Marks 100 Days in Office

Visiting Branches to Check Small Business Owners' and Employees' Difficulties
Support for Resolving COVID-19 Loan Bottlenecks, Achievements in Breaking Purism through External Recruitment of IBK Investment Securities CEO
Communication with Labor Union Remains a Challenge

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Dongdaemun in Seoul, Bulgwang Station, Hongdae Station, Seongsu-dong. Ansan Sangnok-su, Singojan. Daejeon, ...

On the 11th, marking 100 days since his inauguration, Yoon Jong-won, president of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, has stepped up as a 'firefighter' against the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). He visits branches in Seoul and the metropolitan area almost daily, taking time during his morning commute and breaks in the afternoon. As the spread of COVID-19 has severely impacted self-employed individuals and caused financial difficulties, he has rolled up his sleeves to provide financial support as the head of a state-run bank, the lifeline and last bastion for small business owners and SMEs.

President Yoon is known as a 'field-oriented' CEO. Instead of only reviewing documents brought to his office, he visits branches to see and hear firsthand the difficulties faced by small business owners and employees. The number of site visits has increased amid the COVID-19 crisis. These visits are mostly unannounced and conducted quietly as 'undercover inspections.' Given the ongoing social distancing and the busy loan processing staff, the president’s visit itself could be a burden. At one branch he visited this week, he only observed about 30 customers waiting and the loan processing status, without engaging in conversation with employees. Through interactions with customers, he listened to any issues regarding loan applications and visually checked employees’ inconveniences and compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines before leaving. It was later revealed that many employees were unaware that President Yoon had visited.

These days, President Yoon’s mind is fully occupied with ways to support those affected by COVID-19. From the 6th, IBK took over the screening work of the Regional Credit Guarantee Foundation, identified as a bottleneck in loan processing, after discussions between President Yoon and his staff. Although there were many internal opinions that the screening delegation would be difficult due to complicated system connections, after much deliberation, they decided to 'give it a try.' As a result, the scale of 'simple guarantees' increased significantly from 56.1 billion KRW on the first day of implementation to 500.6 billion KRW as of the 8th, just three days later.

This year, profitability is not being heavily considered. If IBK, the loan window for small business owners and SMEs, focuses on profitability, it could ultimately lead to 'taking away the umbrella when it rains.' The Ministry of Economy and Finance also stated that it would consider IBK’s active participation in government policies when evaluating its management performance.

Internally, IBK’s efforts to break the pure-blood system and strengthen the expertise of affiliates are being recognized. Last month, President Yoon recruited Seo Byung-ki, an external executive and Senior Vice President of IB at Shin Young Securities, as president of IBK Investment & Securities. Since the predecessor, Kim Young-gyu, was a former IBK deputy president, many expected the next CEO of IBK Investment & Securities to come from bank executives. However, President Yoon boldly brought in an external expert for areas requiring specialized knowledge such as the capital market, enhancing the competitiveness of subsidiaries and injecting tension throughout the organization.

Improving relations with the labor union is a challenge for President Yoon, who is an external executive. The IBK labor union claimed the effective abolition of the first half’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and filed a complaint against President Yoon for violating the 52-hour workweek due to increased COVID-19 workload. Meanwhile, the financial union to which the labor union belongs joined the government’s move to allow exceptions for overtime beyond 52 hours to strengthen COVID-19 financial support. Through continuous internal communication, improving relations with the labor union and bringing change and vitality to the organization as an external CEO to enhance competitiveness is President Yoon’s task.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.