KB Kookmin to manage Citibank Korea retail customers

KB Kookmin Bank CEO Lee Jae-keun, right, and and Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon pose for a photo at the KB office in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [KB KOOKMIN BANK]

KB Kookmin Bank will handle the retail customers of Citibank Korea as it gradually shuts down services for such clients.

On Tuesday KB Kookmin Bank said it will provide financial services to Citibank Korea’s retail customers starting on July 3.

Foreign exchange and safety deposit boxes are some of the services that will be provided to the users of Citibank Korea, said KB Kookmin Bank.

The two companies signed a strategic partnership at the KB Kookmin Bank headquarters in western Seoul on Tuesday. It was attended by KB Kookmin Bank CEO Lee Jae-keun and Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon.

“The latest partnership is meaningful in that companies in the same industry cooperated with a goal to protect financial customers,” said a spokesperson for KB Kookmin Bank in a statement. It vowed to provide customers with “innovative financial services” while minimizing the challenges of having to shift to KB Kookmin.

Citibank Korea said in 2021 that it will close its retail banking services “in phases” in accordance with the drive to reorganize global business. The board agreed to pull out from consumer banking in Korea in October of that year.

Citigroup had said it will exit consumer banking operations in 13 markets.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]