Amid Car Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young's Reappointment Prospects, K Bank's 'Relief Pitcher' Lee Moon-hwan Steps Down

Lee Moon-hwan, K-Bank CEO, Abruptly Resigns
Lee Il-man to Be Appointed New CEO This Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] The paths of the heads of internet-only banks KakaoBank and K Bank are diverging. While there is a high expectation that Yoon Ho-young, CEO of KakaoBank, will be smoothly reappointed, K Bank is facing a leadership change due to the sudden resignation of CEO Lee Moon-hwan.

Lee Moon-hwan, former CEO of K Bank

According to banking circles on the 8th, Lee abruptly tendered his resignation the day before due to personal reasons and stepped down. It has been about 10 months since he took office in March last year. Lee had about one year left in his term. K Bank has temporarily shifted to a system where Deputy CEO Jung Woon-ki acts as the CEO.

K Bank will soon activate the Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee and begin the process of selecting the next CEO. K Bank plans to proceed with the subsequent procedures as quickly as possible to minimize the management vacuum. Accordingly, it is expected that the appointment of the next CEO will be completed through an extraordinary shareholders' meeting as early as this month or by next month at the latest.

Lee served as Head of Corporate Communications Business Division, Head of Strategic Planning Office, and Head of Corporate Business Division at KT, then worked as CEO of BC Card, a KT subsidiary, for two years from 2018 before taking office as CEO of K Bank.

Lee led the process of normalizing operations after K Bank, which had been unable to handle loans properly due to financial difficulties, resumed lending in July last year based on capital increases and other measures. It is known that Lee occasionally expressed to those around him the mental and physical fatigue and hardships accumulated during the rapid normalization and stabilization of the organization after his appointment.

As of the end of last month, K Bank had 2.19 million customers, an increase of about 840,000 compared to 1.35 million at the end of June last year, just before resuming operations. Since resuming operations, loan balances increased by 1.73 trillion KRW, and deposit balances increased by 1.9 trillion KRW.

K Bank’s non-face-to-face apartment mortgage loan, launched after more than two years of preparation as the first in the banking sector, is evaluated to be establishing its position in the market, with loan amounts exceeding 200 billion KRW in about three months.

Yoon Ho-young, CEO of Kakao Bank

KakaoBank, CEO Yoon Ho-young Expected to be Reappointed

KakaoBank plans to complete the formation of the nomination committee this month and begin the process of selecting the next CEO in early next month. Unless there are special circumstances, it is highly expected that CEO Yoon will be reappointed. Yoon began his term in February 2017 and was reappointed once in early 2019.

After former co-CEO Lee Yong-woo moved to politics early last year, Yoon has led KakaoBank as the sole CEO. Yoon’s term expired on the 2nd of this month but was temporarily extended until the March shareholders' meeting.

KakaoBank is rapidly expanding its size in all aspects including the number of customers, loans, and deposits, establishing itself as a major player in the banking sector. As of the end of December last year, the number of customers reached 13.6 million, an increase of 2.32 million over one year. Loan balances increased by 5.433 trillion KRW, and deposit balances grew by 2.8274 trillion KRW over the same period.

Considered the biggest IPO candidate this year, KakaoBank completed a 1 trillion KRW rights offering at the end of last year and is accelerating preparations for listing on the KOSPI in the second half of the year. A banking industry official said, "Considering the rapid improvement in performance and the IPO issue, it is widely believed that CEO Yoon is still the most suitable candidate."

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