Yang Jong-hee, Chairman of KB Financial Group, delivered a New Year’s address on January 2nd, at the group’s headquarters in Yeouido, emphasizing the aim to provide “solid trust and stability” to counterbalance the anticipated confusion and upheaval expected this year.
During the ceremony, a moment of silence was observed to mourn the victims and their families affected by a plane crash, with the event being kept simple in light of the social atmosphere.
Chairman Yang highlighted the difficulty in forecasting this year due to internal and external instabilities and the various societal conflicts. He reiterated KB’s commitment to impart unshakable trust and consistency to its customers and the market, promising that regardless of environmental changes, KB will continue to deliver unwavering value.
To achieve these goals, Yang emphasized the unwavering implementation of the value-up plans introduced the previous year, aiming to improve corporate value through strengthened shareholder returns, capital ratio management, and the enhancement of return on risk-weighted assets (RoRWA). He stressed the importance of activities contributing to society’s development, ensuring these efforts also enhance customer value.
Yang also advocated for “warm partnerships” that ensure collective growth, seeing cross-industry, big tech, and platform companies not as competitors but as partners. He advised that by integrating with other companies’ platforms and services, rather than competing with KB’s products and services alone, the impact and success rate can significantly increase, thereby continuing KB’s role in creating influential social value.
Furthermore, Yang called for strengthening KB’s capabilities through “efficiency and innovation” to provide higher value to shareholders, the market, customers, and society. He emphasized the need for rigorous capital allocation across all business ventures, backed by accurate data and performance evidence.
Last December, Yang streamlined the headquarters’ structure, integrating the DT and AI organizations and refining the “global management system” for operational precision and efficiency internationally.
With organizational efficiency in place to respond swiftly to changing environments, Yang now aims for KB to lead “innovation” as an industry standard, suggesting that each employee should represent a direct channel to customers. He assigned a “face-to-face channel innovation” mission to the bank’s strategic headquarters to support this initiative.
Finally, Yang concluded by highlighting the importance of collaboration with employees for achieving these objectives. He committed to focusing on employees’ “health management,” ensuring that their positive energy translates warmth and comfort to customers and society, aligning with KB’s unwavering value commitment in the new year.