Yoon Jong-won, President of IBK Industrial Bank, Personally Oversees Overseas Branches... Chairs First Strategy Meeting

Overseas Store Strategy Meeting Held on the 19th
Review of This Year's Overseas Business and Discussion of 2021 Work Plans

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Yoon Jong-won, President of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, held the first overseas branch strategy meeting since his inauguration. This reflects his intention to personally oversee overseas branches and his determination to transform the bank into a top-tier global financial group ahead of IBK’s 60th anniversary next year.

At 10 a.m. on the 19th, President Yoon gathered local corporation and branch managers and staff from China, Indonesia, and the New York branch via a video conferencing system in the main conference room at IBK headquarters.

Considering the inability to travel overseas directly due to the spread of COVID-19, the meeting was held online for about an hour. Following the 10 a.m. meeting, President Yoon also held another video conference at 4 p.m. with other overseas branch and office managers and staff in the same manner.

The meeting’s agenda was to review the 2020 business performance of overseas corporations, branches, and offices, and to plan for 2021 operations.

Currently, IBK has overseas corporations in China and Indonesia. In China, there are 8 sub-branches and 8 sub-offices, and in Indonesia, there are 32 branches. Additionally, IBK has branches in nine cities including New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, New Delhi, Manila, and Phnom Penh, and overseas offices in Yangon, Jakarta, and Vladivostok.

Although the meeting might appear to be a routine year-end overseas branch strategy meeting, it is significant because President Yoon personally chaired and participated. This is the first overseas branch strategy meeting since Yoon took office as IBK president in January this year. Previously, overseas branch strategy meetings were led by deputy presidents in charge of global strategy.

This demonstrates his commitment to directly manage overseas markets. Since his inauguration, President Yoon has expressed his ambition to make IBK a “top-tier financial group with global competitiveness.” At the innovation management declaration ceremony held in July, he emphasized that “2021 is the 60th anniversary of IBK’s establishment and a turning point to prepare for a new 60 years,” presenting the global expansion of mid-sized enterprise financing know-how and securing new overseas revenue sources as innovation finance tasks for innovative management.

Performance of China and Indonesia Local Corporations Slows Down
Myanmar Local Corporation to Start Operations in First Half of Next Year
Time for President Yoon to Utilize Global Sensibility and Network

IBK’s globalization efforts face many challenges. The IBK China local corporation, established in June 2009, recorded sales of KRW 124.385 billion, operating profit of KRW 10.681 billion, and net profit of KRW 8.05 billion as of the end of September this year, which is far below last year’s total sales of KRW 192.728 billion, operating profit of KRW 29.115 billion, and net profit of KRW 24.794 billion.

The Indonesia corporation, established in September 2019, is also not profitable due to its early-stage status, with sales of KRW 29.523 billion, operating loss of KRW 22.878 billion, and net loss of KRW 22.35 billion from January to September this year. Although IBK obtained approval to establish a local corporation in Myanmar in April this year, the planned business commencement in December was postponed to the first half of next year due to COVID-19. The establishment of an office in Poland is under consideration.

Within IBK, there is high expectation that President Yoon’s strong global network will accelerate the bank’s globalization strategy. During his tenure at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Yoon served as Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), gaining extensive policy experience in finance and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Having worked for a long time at international organizations such as the IMF and OECD, he is recognized for his global sensibility and network. This background fuels expectations that from next year, Yoon’s second year in office, global strategies leveraging international organization networks will be actively pursued.

An IBK official said, “We plan to promote joint projects with international organizations and actively share SME financing know-how through personnel dispatches to expand the foundation of overseas networks,” adding, “We are planning new global businesses to utilize IBK’s strength in SME financing on a global scale and to secure new revenue sources.”

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