Bank chief stresses risk management

Min Byung-duk

In celebrating Kookmin Bank’s 10th anniversary, the bank’s president Min Byung-duk said although much progress has been made in the past year, it still needs to make improvements to raise the bank’s productivity, including management proficiency.

At the bank’s headquarters in Yeouido, central Seoul, yesterday, Min said that as times change risk management will determine the competitiveness of the bank.

“In preparing for the next 10 years it is important to raise the bank’s management efficiency,” the bank’s president said.

“In a regulatory environment where financial consumers’ rights are growing stronger, our profits will inevitably stagnate if we rely on a traditional profit model centered on the difference between deposits and loans.”

He stressed that without guaranteeing productivity and efficiency, the future of a bank won’t be promising.

“Our management performance has improved in the past year as we have made efforts,” Min said. “But to pre-emptively counter the persistently incoming crisis we need to establish a crisis risk system while changing the way we think.”

He noted that Kookmin Bank needs to significantly improve the quality of its assets through readjusting its portfolio to focus on outstanding assets.

Min also stressed the need to create new profit generators.

“When languishing in the past it is difficult to create new marketing opportunities in the changing markets,” Min said. “Therefore in the rapidly changing market, we need to create new businesses that reflect the changing financial trading behaviors of customers.”

One such example that the president mentioned was smartphone services.

Min said to truly grow into a global bank it needs to spread out from the saturated local market to the overseas market.

By Lee Ho-jeong [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]