[Financial Digital New Normal] Yoon Jong-kyu's KB Ambition for the 'Number One Financial Platform'

(2) KB Financial Group
Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu Emphasizes Importance of Digital Transformation (DT) in Competition with Big Tech
Establishes Digital Innovation Division and Completes Group Integrated IT Center
KB Kookmin Bank Launches The K Project in Full Scale

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] "The movement toward the digital era is accelerating. Let's create the number one financial platform based on KB's unique digital capabilities."

The goal emphasized by KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu to employees at the 12th anniversary ceremony in September this year was the 'number one financial platform.' At the occasion where he shared his thoughts on successfully securing a third term, Chairman Yoon again mentioned 'digital.' He stated, "Digital competition with big tech companies crossing industry boundaries is underway," reiterating the importance of digital transformation (DT).

Feeling the urgent need for digitalization in finance to win against big tech, Chairman Yoon began accelerating KB Financial's digitalization in earnest from the end of 2018. At that time, KB Financial established the Digital Innovation Division, which oversees digital, IT, and data-related tasks within the group, to efficiently respond to changes in the digital environment and secure momentum for group-wide DT promotion.

The Digital Innovation Division, personally overseen by Chairman Yoon, is led by KB Kookmin Bank President Hur In as the division head, with Han Dong-hwan, Vice President of the Digital Finance Group, serving as Chief Digital Innovation Officer (CDIO). Lee Woo-yeol, Vice President of the IT Group, is responsible for overall IT, and Yoon Jin-soo, Executive Director of the Data Strategy Group, serves as Chief Data Officer (CDO). This bank-led organization was established in an environment where boundaries between financial and non-financial sectors and business areas are being dismantled. Through the newly established Digital Innovation Division, the plan is to secure momentum to expand the bank-led DT strategy to the entire group level.

KB Financial recently completed IT infrastructure that can play a pivotal role in digitalization. In July last year, KB Financial completed the group’s integrated IT center and is currently in the process of relocating and integrating by affiliate this year. This facility centralizes the IT infrastructure that was previously managed separately by affiliates such as banking, securities, insurance, and cards, serving as a kind of KB Financial ICT integrated hub. Services provided by KB Financial affiliates can all operate from here.

The real game of digital transformation for KB Financial, equipped with integrated IT infrastructure, starts now. Currently, the outlines of digitalization are emerging within group affiliates, including the bank.

KB Kookmin Bank began full-scale operation of 'The K Project,' an AI and cloud-based next-generation IT system, starting from the Hangul Day holiday last month. This achievement came about 20 months after the project kickoff meeting in February last year and marks a complete IT system overhaul for the first time in 10 years.

What is The K Project?

The K Project is short for 'Infrastructure Enhancement Project for a Better KB Future.' It is a project supporting DT centered on KB’s future strategy and digital technology to become the bank customers choose first. It consists of nine business projects including ▲non-face-to-face reconstruction ▲marketing hub establishment ▲global platform reconstruction ▲data hub expansion, and five infrastructure projects including ▲cloud infrastructure construction ▲upgrade of bank-wide interfaces.

The core of the project is seamlessness. By integrating various channels (omnichannel) such as offline branches and online (web, app) at once, customers can experience hyper-connected banking services. Through The K Project, the bank can provide differentiated and personalized financial services by linking all channels for customers. For employees, it offers a standardized marketing environment and precise customer analysis foundation, strengthening sales competitiveness based on digital technology and the marketing hub platform. The K Project is expected to be further advanced with ▲group joint cloud construction (2024), ▲MyData business (after February next year), and ▲mobile and non-face-to-face innovations.

At the center of Chairman Yoon’s DT strategy is customer value. It means utilizing digital technology to create a number one financial platform that offers better benefits to customers. KB’s financial platform is also evolving with a focus on customer benefits.

'Customer Value' at the Core of the DT Strategy

Separate from 'Star Banking,' an app that enables all financial transactions at branches, KB operates the 'Liiv' app specialized in core lifestyle financial services frequently used by customers such as simple remittance, payment, currency exchange, and transportation. Through 'Liiv Ddokddok,' based on two-way communication with customers, users can access the services they want.

KB Kookmin Bank’s real estate platform 'Liiv ON,' which integrates real estate data and finance into one platform allowing everything from property search to loan application at once; the used car platform 'KB ChaChaCha,' boasting the largest number of listings in Korea; and the comprehensive financial platform 'KB Pay,' which enhances payment convenience and scalability by adding various financial services such as remittance, currency exchange, and membership functions, are the results.

KB Financial also pursues co-growth in digital transformation.

Through collaboration with KB Financial Group, technology startups challenging innovative service creation are selected as 'KB Starters' and nurtured through partnerships and investments by KB affiliates. As of the end of September this year, the total number of KB Starters reached 111 companies, recording 149 cumulative business partnerships with KB Financial Group. The cumulative investment amount from KB Financial Group reached 50 billion KRW, achieving top-level startup collaboration results in the financial sector.

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