NPS' new chairman Kim Tae-hyun to start 3-year term

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is set for its new Chairman Kim Tae-hyun, a former CEO of state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp., to begin his three-year term Friday.

Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol appointed Kim as the pension fund’s chairman on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Kim’s tenure will run from Sept. 2 to Aug. 31, 2025.

Born in 1966, Kim passed a civil service in 1991 and has largely built his career mainly in government financial bureaus.

He has worked for the finance ministry and foreign affairs ministry and headed various departments of the regulatory body Financial Services Commission, including financial policy, financial services and capital markets.   

He became the state-run insurance firm’s CEO in October 2021 and applied for the NPS chairman position while incumbent. President Yoon nominated him after a proposal from the NPS executive recommendation committee and at the request of the acting health minister.

The pension fund’s chair post had been vacant for four and a half months since previous Chairman Kim Yong-jin ended his term on April 18.    

With Kim's inauguration, the Yoon administration will accelerate its pension fund reform plans. The government is aiming to enhance the sustainability and profitability of the pension fund, but hasn’t yet announced a concrete plan.

The health ministry created a committee last month, which will complete financial forecasting of the pension by next March to set up a reform plan.

As of end-June, NPS manages 882.7 trillion won ($652.2 billion) in assets. The pension fund had an 8% negative return on investment during the first half of 2022.   
Its assets will decline from 2039 and be totally depleted by 2055, according to South Korea’s National Assembly Budget Office’s estimates in 2020. 

Write to Yong-Hee Kwak at kyh@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.