KB and Shinhan Undergo Major Organizational Overhaul... Accelerating Digital Transformation Pedal

KB Financial Group Reorganizes into Four Business Groups to Strengthen Digital Platform Capabilities
Shinhan Bank Accelerates Agile Adoption, Digital Innovation Team Restructuring, and Establishment of New Personal Division

KB·Shinhan Headquarters Building Exterior

[Asia Economy reporters Kwangho Lee and Sunmi Park] The common keyword for year-end personnel changes and organizational restructuring at KB Financial Group affiliates and Shinhan Bank was ‘digital.’ This is interpreted as a measure to prepare for competition with big tech companies, including the MyData (personal credit information management) service, which will be fully implemented starting next year.

◆ KB Financial restructures into four business groups= According to financial industry sources on the 29th, the keyword for KB Financial Group affiliates and Shinhan Bank, which carried out organizational restructuring yesterday afternoon, is strengthening ‘digital platform’ capabilities. KB Financial reorganized into four business groups led by Vice Chairmen Heo In, Lee Dong-cheol, Yang Jong-hee, and Chief Officer Park Jeong-rim. The groups are composed as follows: ▲Personal Customer Division, Wealth Management (WM) & Pension Division, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Division led by Vice Chairman Heo ▲Global Division and Insurance Division led by Vice Chairman Lee ▲Digital Division and IT Division led by Vice Chairman Yang ▲Capital Markets Division and Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) Division led by Chief Officer Park.

In response to the fierce competition for platform dominance due to trends such as financial application (app) re-bundling and the MyData business, KB Financial established a ‘Digital Content Center’ under the Digital Platform Chief Officer (CDPO). This center will support qualitative upgrades of customer-facing content provided on the group’s platforms and promote efforts to enhance platform completeness through the dedicated ‘Platform QC (Quality Control) Unit’ responsible for digital platform quality management.

KB Kookmin Bank will accelerate customer experience innovation by forming a second-phase platform organization in the new year, following the establishment of the first-phase platform organization last year. It will reorganize eight divisions?fund services, digital new business, KB mobile authentication, supply chain finance, corporate cash management, corporate banking, institutional sales, and global digital?into DevOps organizations.

To transform KB Star Banking into a group-level super app encompassing finance and daily life, KB Financial established the ‘Financial Platform Headquarters,’ the ‘Customer Experience Design Center’ dedicated to user interface and experience (UI/UX) improvements, and the ‘Digital Content Center’ dedicated to digital content. Additionally, to strengthen capabilities in responding to the financial environment, the ‘Personal Marketing Headquarters’ was created to promote specialized marketing by generation, and the ‘Digital New Business Headquarters’ was established as a foundational organization to drive KB platform growth in response to big tech competition.

Furthermore, to enable flexible headquarters organization operations, the department-level headquarters structure of ‘Team-Office-Center-Division-Unit’ was simplified to ‘Center-Division.’ The possible appointment positions for headquarters and department-level organizations were expanded up to executive level, establishing a flexible position operation system based on ability and performance.

◆ Shinhan Bank restructures focusing on ‘speed of execution’= Shinhan Bank carried out organizational restructuring centered on accelerating digital transformation by introducing agile methods, reorganizing the Digital Innovation Group, and establishing a Digital Personal Division. In line with Shinhan Financial Group’s agile organization ‘S.A.Q,’ a purpose-driven organization called ‘Tribe’ was established to carry out core strategic tasks. This organization strongly integrates resources needed for key strategic tasks such as new app development without boundaries.

The Digital Innovation Group redefined its roles into the following units: the ‘Data Planning Unit’ responsible for data strategy and advisory; the ‘Data Science Unit’ analyzing voice and images and developing analytical models; the ‘Innovation Service Unit’ handling AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) services; and the ‘Data Platform Unit’ developing and operating AI platforms and big data analysis portals. Notably, the Digital Personal Division was newly established by assigning the Digital Strategy Group to the personal division. This aims to revitalize retail sales centered on digital to offer differentiated customer management and marketing.

Meanwhile, Shinhan Bank newly appointed experts in various fields such as global, credit, personal, consumer protection, and risk management as division heads and group leaders.

Oh Han-seop, appointed as Credit Group Leader, is a top expert in credit with extensive experience in corporate credit review and corporate sales professional (PRM) marketing. Park Hyun-joo, appointed as Consumer Group Leader, is recognized as a representative female leader with strong communication skills, having led various departments including consumer protection and foreign exchange support. Jeong Yong-gi, appointed as Personal Group Leader, is acknowledged for his ability to drive business and synergy based on diverse sales field experience. Park Sung-hyun, appointed as Institutional Group Leader, is recognized as the optimal person to lead the institutional group with deep understanding of institutional work, having served as head of institutional customers and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSSO) at the holding company.

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