Financial Industry Leaders Catch Attention by Sharing Ideas Without Titles

Yoon Jong-won and Kim Jung-tae Propose New Product Launch Ideas
CEO's Innovative Ideas... "Help Foster a Flexible Organizational Culture"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] 'From credit cards to experiential financial education apps,' financial sector leaders are making headlines by directly contributing ideas for new product development. This is interpreted as a result reflecting a strong will to break the conservative work system of the financial sector, where new attempts are difficult.

According to the financial sector on the 3rd, IBK Industrial Bank recently launched the country's first dual card combining personal and corporate cards into one, called the "Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Card."

The card features a design with the personal card on the upper part and the corporate card on the lower part, eliminating the inconvenience of customers having to carry multiple cards. Benefits are also consolidated. Points earned from the usage amounts of both cards are accumulated on the personal card, allowing them to be used for card payments and other purposes.

Personal card points are accumulated at 1% for domestic usage, 1.5% for gas stations, electric vehicle charging stations, hotels, and duty-free shops, and 2% for overseas usage. For the corporate card, 0.3% of the usage amount at all domestic and international merchants is eligible for points. This unprecedented new card was born from the idea of IBK Bank President Yoon Jong-won, who wished for a dedicated card specialized for corporate CEOs. It is known that President Yoon personally oversaw the entire development process, from product service to card name and design.

This is not the first time President Yoon has proposed ideas. Last year, he also launched the country's first credit card coated with an antibacterial film. It was conceived in March last year, early in the COVID-19 outbreak, as a way to alleviate customers' concerns about infection. Currently, IBK applies the antibacterial film coating method to most of its credit cards.

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tae proposed the idea for launching the experiential financial platform for Generation Z, the "iBuja App." It is a "pair-app" based platform where Generation Z children and Generation X parents each install the app on their mobile phones and experience financial activities and wealth-building together through "allowance" transactions via mobile. A patent application is currently underway for this business model.

Chairman Kim also previously proposed the idea for the "Daehanmingukmanse Fixed Deposit and Savings" product in 2015, commemorating the 70th anniversary of liberation, aiming to embed patriotic sentiment into financial products. It was one of the representative products that received enthusiastic consumer response, selling over 100,000 accounts within 9 business days of launch.

There is also an idea to send employees to fintech companies for product development. Gwangju Bank President Song Jong-wook sent eight Gwangju Bank employees to Toss in April to learn about its "secrets to success" and "working methods." This was a result of President Song's idea to break the existing convention in the banking sector of only launching highly polished products and to bring a new wave of change to the organization.

A banking industry official explained, "The innovative ideas of top executives greatly help in forming a flexible organizational culture," adding, "It can be seen as playing a role in creating an environment where work is done in a more horizontal organizational culture and anyone can propose good ideas."

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