KB Financial pursues glocalization in Southeast Asia

KB Financial Group Chairman and Chief Executive Yoon Jong-kyoo brought up “glocalization” as a key strategy for its global expansion at a recent town hall meeting with its employees.

The portmanteau of globalization and localization underlines its efforts to cater to local customers with customized products and services in overseas markets, utilizing its financial technologies and infrastructure.

“If we pursue globalization based only on our experience in South Korea, it will fail. We must build our competitive edge in each country,” Yoon said at the meeting.

Under the glocalization strategy, the country’s largest banking group is targeting the digital banking market in Cambodia, while focusing on traditional banking services in Vietnam.

The town hall meeting on June 22 was the first such meeting for the group in three years after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Chief executives of Kookmin Bank, KB Securities Co., KB Insurance Co. and other subsidiaries participated in the gathering, together with 106 foreign employees of those companies from 14 countries where KB Financial Group runs operations.

“If there is a chance, we will aggressively pursue M&As (in overseas markets),” Yoon said. 

The main topic of the four-hour meeting was how to strengthen KB Financial’s global businesses and the capabilities of its employees, as well as about enhancing its competitiveness.

OVERSEAS GROWTH

KB Financial has set its sights on Southeast Asia in the first step toward its global advance.

In 2020, it acquired a majority stake in Indonesia's Bank Bukopin and then took full control of Cambodian microlender PRASAC, the country’s largest microfinance institution, in 2021.

Those moves are in line with the group’s efforts to lift global operations to nearly 30% of total revenue by 2030 and then to 40% by 2040 at the latest.

“I’m leading this group with the goal of increasing the global proportion to 40% from the current 10%,” Yoon said during the Invest K-Finance Singapore IR 2023 in May. It was a joint IR event for South Korean financial service companies held in Singapore.

To that end, risk management should come first, stressed the former chief financial officer of Kookmin Bank, the group’s flagship unit.

Global operations encompass both banking and non-banking services such as brokerages and insurance.

Regarding the impact of generative AI such as ChatGPT, he said the group will change the work system of its employees to focus on what ChatGPT can’t do, such as the tasks that require a sensitive approach, so they can remain competitive.

Meanwhile, KB will expand the work exchange program for its 24,000 foreign employees to give them opportunities to work in the South Korean headquarters, and vice versa for Korean employees.

Write to Bo-Hyung Kim at kph21c@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.