KB Financial Group Restructures into Four Business Groups Led by Heo In, Lee Dong-cheol, Yang Jong-hee, and Park Jung-rim

KB Financial Group Accelerates Organizational Restructuring and Personnel Changes to Transform into a 'Comprehensive Financial Platform Company'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] KB Financial Group conducted an organizational restructuring and executive appointments on the 28th to enhance the system of its business divisions and strengthen the digital platform, ESG, and global sectors.

First, KB Financial Group reorganized its business divisions into four business groups managed by three vice chairmen and a general division head. Through this, the group plans to further strengthen linkage and collaboration among business divisions and expand synergies from a group-wide perspective.

The four business groups consist of the Personal Customer Division, WM & Pension Division, and SME Division led by Vice Chairman Heo In; the Global Division and Insurance Division led by Vice Chairman Lee Dong-cheol; the Digital Division and IT Division led by Vice Chairman Yang Jong-hee; and the Capital Markets Division and CIB Division led by General Division Head Park Jeong-rim.

The general division head in charge of the Capital Markets Division and CIB Division will play a coordinating role within the group’s investment division, enhancing group-level investment and asset management capabilities and managing the investment portfolio. Additionally, a new organization was established to respond to the increasingly fierce "platform leadership competition" among financial companies and between financial companies and big tech firms, driven by trends such as financial app re-bundling and the full-scale launch of the MyData business.

Under the Chief Digital Platform Officer (CDPO), the Digital Content Center supports qualitative upgrades of customer-facing content provided through the group’s platforms, and the Platform QC (Quality Control) Unit, a dedicated digital platform quality management organization, will work to enhance platform completeness from the customer’s perspective.

The organization for strengthening ESG management and expanding global business, which has been consistently pursued, was also reinforced. Under the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), an ESG Headquarters was newly established to increase execution capabilities by subsidiaries based on the group’s ESG strategies developed so far, such as the mid-to-long-term ESG management roadmap (KB Green Wave 2030) and the group’s carbon neutrality strategy (KB Net Zero S.T.A.R), further solidifying its position as a leading ESG company.

The newly established Global Headquarters under the Chief Global Strategy Officer (CGSO) will support the early stabilization of global acquisitions and accelerate the expansion of the global growth base, including the global network.

Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu of KB Financial Group

KB Kookmin Bank Designs 2nd Phase Platform Organization, Integrates Organizations, and Strengthens ESG in Organizational Restructuring

Meanwhile, KB Kookmin Bank, having laid the foundation for a comprehensive financial platform company this year, reflected the following in its 2022 organizational restructuring: ▲design and support function enhancement of the 2nd phase platform organization ▲simultaneous pursuit of organizational integration for operational efficiency and specialization to actively respond to the financial environment ▲establishment of a flexible and responsible organizational operation system ▲strengthening ESG management and enhancing shared value with financially marginalized groups.

In this 2nd phase platform organization, a total of eight divisions (Fund Services, Digital New Business, KB Mobile Authentication, Supply Chain Finance, Corporate Cash Management, Corporate Banking, Institutional Sales, Global Digital) were reorganized into DevOps (a combination of software development and operations) teams. The Financial Platform Headquarters was established to enable KB Star Banking to evolve into a group-level super app encompassing finance and daily life; the Customer Experience Design Center, a dedicated UI/UX organization, was created to strengthen customer experience improvement capabilities; and the Digital Content Center, a dedicated digital content organization, was newly established.

To maximize business promotion synergy and operational efficiency, some headquarters organizations, such as the ‘Trust and Capital Markets’ divisions, were merged or consolidated, focusing on linked and similar task-performing organizations. Additionally, to strengthen financial environment response capabilities, a Personal Marketing Headquarters was newly established to conduct specialized marketing by generation (MZ generation, senior customers, etc.).

Furthermore, to respond to big tech, the Digital New Business Headquarters was established as a foundational organization to promote the growth of the KB platform, with the Digital New Business Department responsible for systematic response and the Authentication Business Department responsible for expanding the KB authentication ecosystem under it.

For flexible headquarters organization operation, the department-level headquarters structure of ‘teams, offices, centers, departments, units’ was simplified to ‘centers and departments,’ and the eligible positions for headquarters and department-level organizations were expanded to executive level, establishing a ‘flexible position operation system based on ability and performance.’

Through the establishment of a dedicated ESG headquarters, the carbon neutrality strategy and climate change risk management system were established. Also, to improve financial accessibility for financially marginalized groups such as new filers and startups, the credit evaluation model development organization was elevated to a department, and a dedicated team for alternative credit evaluation model utilization was newly established to promote the expansion of the bank’s social value and the practice of inclusive finance.

A KB Financial Group official stated, "In this personnel appointment, KB Financial focused on appointing leaders suitable for building an organizational foundation to strengthen the group’s competitiveness, performance-based personnel, young generations born in the 1970s, external hires, talents from affiliates who are not from banks, and the active promotion of female talents." He added, "Through balanced personnel appointments between banks and non-banks, we plan to maximize synergy creation among group companies."

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