Next Savings Bank Central Association President Race Between Oh Hwa-kyung and Jeong Jin-su... Official Variables Disappear

Second Consecutive Private Sector President to Be Elected
Voting to Take Place at General Meeting on the 31st

The next (20th) president election of the Korea Federation of Savings Banks has been narrowed down to a two-way race between the current president Oh Hwa-kyung and former CEO of SangSangIn Plus Savings Bank, Jeong Jin-su. No candidate recommended by the financial authorities appeared in the end.

On the 17th, the Federation announced that President Oh and former CEO Jeong submitted documents related to their candidacy for the next president. The Federation's Presidential Candidate Recommendation Committee completed candidate registration at 6 p.m. that day.

By the 21st, the committee will conduct document screening and interviews to verify candidates. If two-thirds or more of the seven committee members agree during the candidate interviews, the candidate will be selected. Candidate registration will continue until the 26th.

On the 31st, a regular general meeting will be held at the Bankers Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, where voting will take place. The election will be conducted by direct voting, one vote per each of the 79 savings banks. A candidate must secure two-thirds of the votes to be elected.

If President Oh is re-elected (for the 19th and 20th terms), he will become the first president to succeed in re-election in 36 years. Among the 16 past presidents, only two?former presidents Choi Byung-il (2nd and 3rd terms) and Myung Dong-geun (5th and 6th terms)?have served consecutive terms.

Even if former CEO Jeong is elected, it will mark the second consecutive election of a president from the private sector. Jeong served as CEO of SangSangIn Plus Savings Bank from 2016 until February 2019.

Traditionally, the Federation's president has been a candidate from the bureaucratic sector. Since the Federation's establishment in 1973, only three presidents, including President Oh, have come from the private sector. Most have been former officials from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and other government agencies.

After President Yoon Seok-yeol declared emergency martial law in December last year amid the impeachment crisis, no bureaucratic candidate ran. On the 20th of last month, the Federation declared that it would proceed with the election schedule without endorsing any specific candidate, which reportedly led bureaucratic candidates to decline running.

Within the industry, there are talks that President Oh's chances of re-election have increased due to the absence of bureaucratic candidates.

Since February 2022, President Oh has been serving as the 19th president for three years, focusing on resolving pressing issues such as blocking the risk of mass withdrawals (bank runs) from real estate project financing (PF) deposits.

Until recently, he has also been working on establishing a specialized non-performing loan (NPL) company within the Federation to enhance the soundness of the industry.

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