Will Yum Myung-soon, Citi Bank Senior Executive Vice President, Become the Second Female Bank President in Korea? (Comprehensive)

Park Jinhoe Bank President Declines Third Term
Senior Executive Vice President Yoo Assumes Acting President Role
No Internal Competitors, Next President 'Within Reach'

Yoom Young-soon, Senior Executive Vice President, Korea Citibank

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Kim] Yum Yoomsoon, Senior Vice President of Citibank Korea, has been appointed as acting president following the retirement of Park Jinhoe, the bank’s president. Yum is emerging as a strong candidate for the next president of Citibank. Attention is focused on whether the country’s second female bank president will be born.

Citibank announced on the afternoon of the 18th that it held an extraordinary board meeting and decided to start the management succession process, appointing Senior Vice President Yum as acting president.

Yum’s acting presidency will begin on the 1st of next month and will continue until the next president is appointed. Citibank explained, “The president will be appointed through a nomination by the Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee according to the bank’s internal regulations, followed by approval at the shareholders’ meeting and the board of directors.”

Earlier, on the 14th, President Park expressed his intention to retire upon the expiration of his term in October.

Born in 1964, Senior Vice President Yum is the second highest-ranking executive among Citibank’s 13 executives after President Park. Since joining Citibank in 1987, she has remained with the bank except for a brief period in 2014 when she worked at JP Morgan’s Seoul branch.

Her extensive experience in the corporate banking (IB) sector, which is rarely entrusted to women in the conservative banking industry, is also an advantage. She currently serves as head of the Corporate Banking Group.

Second Female Bank President?

If Senior Vice President Yum ascends to the presidency, she will be the second female CEO among major banks following former IBK Industrial Bank CEO Kwon Sunjoo, and the first female CEO at a foreign bank.

Among Citibank’s 13 executives at the level of managing director or above, five are women, a significantly higher proportion than other banks. Citibank operates a Women’s Committee and Diversity Committee to run various programs promoting gender equality. Earlier this year, it became the first domestic company to extend paid paternity leave to four weeks, doubling the legal standard of two weeks.

The other two vice presidents, who could be considered internal competitors, are foreign executives. Given domestic sentiment, it is unlikely that a foreign executive will be appointed as CEO of a domestic bank. Shin Donggeum, a female executive who was just below Senior Vice President Yum in rank, left the company on June 30 for personal reasons. This means there is effectively no internal competition.

Possibility of External Candidate

There is also a possibility of a surprise appointment from outside. Citibank plans to hold a series of meetings including the board of directors, Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee, and shareholders’ meeting from the end of this month or early next month to appoint the next president. A Citibank official said, “We have both internal and external candidates, and the president will be selected through the proper procedures.”

Meanwhile, Park’s decision not to seek a third term is considered unusual. Born in 1957, Park became Citibank’s second president in 2014 and was reappointed in 2017. Since the previous president Ha Younggu served for 10 years, Park’s third term was expected. Park’s term ends on the 31st, and he will serve as chairman of the board until October to lead the successor appointment process.

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