No "Pureblood" Before "Digital"... Bank Accelerates Innovation Team Formation and External Talent Recruitment (Comprehensive)

Expansion of Contactless Digital Finance
Establishing Digital Innovation Teams to Compete with Big Tech like Naver
Actively Recruiting Experts

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] Commercial banks, which are putting their lives on strengthening 'digital finance,' are actively recruiting external personnel while fully launching financial platform strategies to compete with big tech companies such as Naver and Kakao. As the spread of non-face-to-face digital finance accelerates due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the trend of actively utilizing external talents with expertise in various digital fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data is spreading.

According to the financial sector on the 2nd, major banks have been accelerating the strengthening of digital finance this year by recruiting external experts and establishing innovation organizations directly under the bank president.

NH Nonghyup Bank recruits first external vice president... reorganizes customer-centered digital finance organization

NH Nonghyup Bank decided to gradually convert departments within the digital finance division into a customer-based marketing system starting next year through an organizational restructuring at the end of last month to strengthen customer-centered digital finance. Currently, the digital finance division of Nonghyup Bank is divided into the Digital Strategy Department, Digital Channel Department, Digital Marketing Department, and Digital Business Department, separated by function. The plan is to establish a 'Corporate Digital Finance Cell' next year and then separate departments by customer type, such as the Personal Digital Business Department and Corporate Digital Business Department, from 2022.

This change came about four months after recruiting Lee Sang-rae, former Samsung SDS executive director, as the head of the digital finance division (CDO, vice president) in July. Notably, this is the first time NH Nonghyup Bank has recruited an external vice president excluding the compliance officer, breaking the tradition of in-house promotion.

KB Kookmin Bank launches 'Panel Committee'... composed of 24 IT experts

KB Kookmin Bank launched a panel committee composed of 24 IT experts in September. The committee is a meeting body that discusses the outlook and response strategies for financial IT, consisting of Lee Woo-yeol, KB Kookmin Bank IT Group Vice President, Dr. Shin Yong-yeo, Chief Technology Officer (NTO) of Microsoft (MS), Executive Director Lim Jin-sik of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kim Hwa-jong, head of the AI New Drug Development Support Center, as well as employees from KB Kookmin Bank's IT specialized branch 'KB Insight,' ICT companies, AI, security experts, professors, and lawyers. Earlier, in April last year, KB Kookmin Bank appointed former Hyundai Card executive director Yoon Jin-soo as head of the Data Strategy Headquarters (executive director).

Hana Bank accelerates internal digital talent development through 'DT University'

Hana Bank is accelerating not only the recruitment of external talents but also the development of internal digital talents. 'DT University,' launched jointly with Hana Financial Group in July, is an integrated education platform that provides customized practical digital training to strengthen digital capabilities. In the case of Hana Bank, Kim Jung-han, former head of the Silicon Valley and Samsung Electronics Software Research Institute, who was recruited at the group level at the end of 2017, is in charge of the group's ICT overall management.

Woori Bank's second organizational restructuring after President Kwon's inauguration... establishes DT Promotion Team and AI Business Department

Woori Bank carried out its second organizational restructuring since the inauguration of President Kwon Kwang-seok in July, establishing the 'DT (Digital Transformation) Promotion Team' and 'AI Business Department' in the digital field. In particular, the DT Promotion Team includes the Digital Strategy Department, Big Data Business Department, AI Business Department, Digital Business Department, and Smart App Development Department.

Previously, in 2018, Woori Bank brought in former Hana Financial Investment executive director Hwang Won-cheol as head of the Digital Finance Group and CDO. Hwang was the first C-level executive recruited externally by Woori Bank. Additionally, No Jin-ho, former CEO of Hancom, serves as the head of the Digital and IT Division, the digital control tower of Woori Financial Group.

Shinhan Bank establishes 'Digital Innovation Team' directly under the bank president... recruits two external experts

Most recently, Shinhan Bank established the 'Digital Innovation Team,' an innovation promotion organization directly under the bank president. It consists of four organizations: AI Unit, MyData Unit, Data Unit, and Digital R&D Center. To accelerate innovation, they recruited former KT executive director Kim Hye-joo and former SK C&C executive director Kim Jun-hwan as leaders to lead the 'Digital Innovation Team.'

Shinhan Financial Group has promoted open recruitment of external talents from a perspective of openness and innovation, appointing external experts in various fields such as strategy, global, digital, and asset management.

Since 2017, Shinhan Bank has actively recruited external experts in the digital sector, including department heads Kim Cheol-gi and Jang Hyun-gi. It also introduced the first-ever digital and ICT rolling recruitment and a special admission track for Samsung Youth Software Academy (SSAFY) in the banking sector, making great efforts to attract future talents, hiring about 100 digital and ICT talents this year despite the impact of COVID-19.

Regional and savings banks also strive to recruit digital experts

The situation is the same for regional banks and savings banks. Busan Bank recruited former Samsung Card Big Data Marketing (BMP) team leader Lee Joo-hyung as head of the Digital Finance Headquarters (executive director) in October. This came five months after former D-IT Group leader and Digital Finance Headquarters head (deputy vice president) Han Jeong-wook resigned in mid-May this year.

SBI Savings Bank appointed former Financial Supervisory Service Fintech Field Support Team leader Jeong In-hwa as a standing director to strengthen digital business. Welcome Savings Bank appointed Director Baek In-ho, who has experience at Tmon, Meritz Financial Services, and Samsung SDS, as head of the Digital Headquarters in September. Accuon Savings Bank reappointed Executive Director Kim Jung-soo (head of Digital Innovation Division), formerly of Shinhan Card.

A financial sector official said, "Competition with big tech companies such as Naver and Kakao is a matter of life and death for the banking sector," adding, "There is a widespread sense of crisis that external experts must be brought in faster for digital innovation, even in the banking sector, which has had a strong in-house promotion tradition."

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