Yoon Jong-kyu's Possibility of a Third Term as KB Financial Group Chairman... What Are the Variables?

Yoon Jong-kyu, Heo In, Lee Dong-cheol, Kim Byung-ho Four-Way Race
Chairman Yoon, Seeking Third Term, Strengthens Communication with Employees

The KB Financial Group Chairman Candidate Recommendation Committee held a meeting on the 28th at the Kookmin Bank Seoul Yeouido headquarters and finalized four candidates for the chairman position: Kim Byung-ho (from the left), Yoon Jong-kyu, Lee Dong-cheol, and Heo In.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] With KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu making it onto the final shortlist of candidates, the possibility of his third consecutive term has increased.

The KB Financial Chairman Candidate Recommendation Committee (hereafter, the Committee) confirmed a total of four candidates on the shortlist at its meeting on the 28th. The shortlist includes Chairman Yoon, KB Kookmin Bank President Hur In, KB Kookmin Card President Lee Dong-cheol, and former Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Kim Byung-ho. The Committee plans to conduct in-depth interviews with the four shortlisted candidates on September 16. The candidate who receives more than two-thirds of the votes from the Committee members will be confirmed as the final chairman candidate.

Chairman Yoon, who has held the KB Financial chairman position since November 2014, being included in this shortlist adds weight to the possibility of a third term.

Internally at KB Financial, Chairman Yoon’s management performance is highly regarded, and among the four final candidates, former Hana Financial Vice Chairman Kim is the only external nominee who could be a variable. In the banking sector, there have been several cases of financial group chairmen serving three consecutive terms, such as former Shinhan Financial Chairman Ra Eung-chan, former Hana Financial Chairman Kim Seung-yu, and current Hana Financial Chairman Kim Jung-tae. With KB Financial growing rapidly, there is an assessment that there is no reason why Chairman Yoon cannot serve a third term.

Under Chairman Yoon’s leadership, KB Financial has solidified its position as a leading financial group in the industry and achieved both expansion through major mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strengthening of fundamentals. Despite the ultra-low interest rate environment caused by the spread of COVID-19, KB Financial’s net profit for the second quarter of this year was 981.8 billion KRW, a 35% increase compared to the same period last year. This significantly exceeded market experts’ forecast of around 880 billion KRW. Surpassing the previous leader Shinhan Financial Group (873.1 billion KRW), KB Financial secured the top spot in the financial holding industry.

The labor union, which opposed Chairman Yoon’s reappointment in 2017, showed signs of conducting a pro and con survey on his third term ahead of the Committee meeting. Recently, the KB union conducted an urgent survey targeting 17,231 union members, emphasizing that among the 7,880 respondents, 6,264 (79.5%) opposed the third term.

The most common specific reason given by opposing employees was that "work intensity has increased focusing on short-term performance," accounting for 32.2% (2,019 people). They argue that when one person holds the financial group chairman position for a long period, various side effects due to power concentration may arise, and a fairer chairman candidate selection process is necessary.

However, among approximately 25,000 union members, the card and non-life insurance unions, excluding bank and securities unions, refused to participate in the survey, leading to responses that the survey results lack representativeness.

Meanwhile, Chairman Yoon, who is challenging a third term, is strengthening communication with employees online in consideration of the COVID-19 situation. Recently, Chairman Yoon held the second session of ‘e-Communication Live,’ an informal conversation with MZ generation employees (born from the early 1980s to early 2000s) via YouTube live broadcast. He faced employees at the Yeouido headquarters equipped with a large screen, while employees from across the country, including Jeju Island, participated in communication from free locations.

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