Jung Jin-wan, Woori Bank President Candidate, "From Task-Oriented Organization to Customer-Centered"

Jung Jin-wan, the nominee for Woori Bank president, stated on the 2nd that he would address internal control issues through work efficiency improvements. He also presented a blueprint to transform the organization from a task-oriented structure to a 'customer-centric' organization.

On the morning of the same day, Jung met with reporters on his way to work at the headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, saying, "I will work hard for the shareholders who trusted and elected me despite difficult circumstances, my colleagues who trust me and work with me, and the customers we have not served well until now."

Regarding internal control innovation measures, he said, "I have spent 26 out of 30 years of my banking career at branches," adding, "Woori Bank theoretically has an excellent and well-established internal control system, but this is also a task done by people."

Jung continued, "I believe we need to filter out parts of employees' work that cause overload to secure time for internal control," and explained, "For example, if a cash discrepancy occurs, and previously one person handled the task but now another person is assigned to oversee it, one hour must be deducted. I hope we can align these physical factors with internal control theory."

Jung also revealed plans to reorganize the bank into a 'customer-centric' structure. He emphasized, "We intend to transform the organization, which is currently arranged based on tasks, into a customer-centric one," adding, "Since banking is a service industry, the corporate value should be organized around customers."

Regarding the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system, which has been pointed out as a cause of successive financial accidents, he proposed operating both absolute and relative evaluations simultaneously. He said, "Woori Bank has relatively weak capital, so we have conducted relative evaluations based on performance to generate profits and increase shareholder value," but added, "However, since the essence of banking is customer satisfaction, we should also evaluate based on how well this is achieved."

Jung identified corporate finance as the business sector that needs strengthening. He stated, "Woori Bank originated from a bank established for ship merchants," and explained, "In a country like ours with significant import and export activities and little support, employees should focus on corporate finance, including companies and individual business owners, to strongly promote import and export."

When asked about resolving factional conflicts, such as those between former Hanil Bank and Commercial Bank employees, he responded, "Although I am from Hanil Bank, it merged into Hanbit Bank after only two and a half years. Two and a half years is not enough to know the past culture well," adding, "Since I have mainly worked in sales, I employ people who perform well, regardless of such factions."

When asked if he was close to Lim Jong-ryong, chairman of Woori Financial Group, he drew a clear line, saying, "Not usually." It is known that Jung worked at Woori Bank's London branch while Lim served as the financial counselor in London, establishing a personal connection. Jung said, "Chairman Lim has top-class insight in the financial sector domestically, and I have 30 years of experience in sales, especially in banking and small and medium-sized enterprise sales," adding, "I will seek a lot of advice when expanding from one field to multiple fields."

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