Park Jin-hoe Will Not Seek a Third Term as Citibank President

Voluntarily Declines 3rd Term After 2 Consecutive Terms
Appointed Acting Bank President at Board Meeting on 18th
3rd Citi Bank President to Be Appointed This October
Some Attribute to Weak First Half Performance

Jinhoe Park, President of Citibank Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Park Jin-hoe, CEO of Citibank Korea, whose term ends this October, is reportedly set to forgo a third term.

According to financial circles on the 17th, Park has expressed his intention to resign from his CEO position by the end of this month and from the chairman of the board position in October. Park is the second CEO of Citibank Korea, which was established in 2004 through the merger of Hanmi Bank and Citibank. He took office in 2014 and successfully renewed his term in 2017. His current term runs until October 27.

Citibank Korea plans to appoint an acting CEO at the board meeting on the 18th. Subsequently, the executive nomination committee will be activated to appoint the third CEO.

Park is credited with successfully improving Citibank Korea’s structure over the past six years, including reducing the number of branches. To offset declining interest income, non-interest income such as wealth management (WM) fees was significantly increased. In 2017, Citibank Korea closed over 70% of its branches but established key WM centers to attract customers. This was a major overhaul, reducing the number of branches from 133 to 43. It can be said that the bank led the recent trend of non-face-to-face (untact) banking in the financial sector.

Some speculate that the relatively early retirement decision of Park, born in 1957 and aged 63, was influenced by the poor performance in the first half of this year. Citibank Korea’s net profit for the first half of this year was 90 billion KRW, a sharp drop of 46.9% compared to the same period last year (169.6 billion KRW). The net profit for the second quarter was 30.3 billion KRW, shrinking 72.4% from 76.9 billion KRW in the same quarter last year.

Citibank Korea explained in its earnings release that the large decrease in this year’s profit appears significant because last year’s first half included a one-time gain from the sale of its Dae-dong building in Jung-gu, Seoul. Excluding the gain from the headquarters sale reflected in last year’s results, total revenue in the second quarter decreased by only 0.7%.

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