Kim Sung-tae, CEO of Industrial Bank of Korea, "Top Priority on Supporting SMEs to Overcome Crisis and Achieve Rebound"

Kim Sung-tae, President of IBK, said on the 2nd, "Overcoming the crisis of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and supporting their leap forward remains the top priority this year," adding, "We must produce tangible results that enhance customer value."

At the opening ceremony held on the morning of the 2nd at the Euljiro headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, attended by about 200 executives and employees, President Kim announced six key focus areas for this year: ▲ Expanding the market position in SME finance ▲ Achieving tangible results in balanced growth ▲ Creating competitive advantages through digitalization ▲ Establishing a flawless internal control system ▲ Achieving groundbreaking productivity improvements ▲ Enhancing employee value.

President Kim stated, "We will reduce financial difficulties for SMEs and small business owners to help them overcome crises and leap forward, and leverage SME policy finance to expand South Korea's growth potential."

He continued, "As part of our global strategy, we will continue territorial expansion by converting subsidiaries in Poland and Vietnam and reviewing new entry regions, while achieving balanced growth through tangible results in personal finance, non-interest sectors, and subsidiaries."

He also mentioned, "We will create competitive advantages through digitalization by segmenting target goals by customer sectors to maximize effectiveness, and realize an IBK free of financial accidents through flawless internal controls."

Furthermore, he emphasized, "Along with meticulous soundness management, we will drastically improve medium- to long-term loan loss costs and boldly eliminate unnecessary tasks, filling the secured capacity with new services aimed at enhancing customer value."

Finally, he urged, "Let us become a world-class financial group recognized globally with the IBK spirit of challenge and innovation, greatly increasing the value for customers, employees, and shareholders alike."

Meanwhile, after the opening ceremony, President Kim’s first schedule of the new year was to visit Sanil Electric, a transformer manufacturing export company located in the Banwol-Sihwa National Industrial Complex, and a nearby branch office. Sanil Electric is the first company in the industry to achieve the $100 million export milestone. President Kim toured the business site, listened to management difficulties, and promised active support to ensure smooth facility investments necessary to strengthen export competitiveness, such as factory expansion.

President Kim said, "IBK will actively support SMEs, the core pillar of South Korea’s growth, so they can thrive on the global stage."

He then visited the Banwol branch to encourage employees and urged them to carry out their duties with a sense of mission as a policy bank employee and to do their best in supporting SMEs.

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