Kim Sung-tae, CEO Ki Eun, "Unprecedented Changes and Uncertainties... Strengthening SME Finance"

Kim Sung-tae, President of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, said on the 2nd, "This year is expected to be a difficult situation with unprecedented domestic and international political changes and economic uncertainties," adding, "Let us focus on the unchanging needs of our customers and create new value to turn the current crisis into an opportunity for a fresh leap forward."

Kim Sung-tae, President of Industrial Bank of Korea, is delivering a greeting at the '100 Days in Office Press Conference' held on the 11th at the Bankers' Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

At the opening ceremony held at the Euljiro headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, attended by about 200 executives and employees, President Kim announced five major tasks for this year: ▲ Strengthening SME finance, the core value ▲ Enhancing future value for customers and society ▲ Creating convergent value through balanced growth across divisions ▲ Completing a robust bank through thorough soundness and profitability management ▲ Establishing proper financial integrity.

President Kim first stated, "Above all, by faithfully fulfilling the fundamental role of IBK, we will actively support SMEs and small business owners in overcoming crises, support the strengthening of SME technological capabilities to contribute to expanding the nation's future growth engines, and enhance the growth ladder for each stage of the corporate lifecycle, thereby becoming a catalyst for revitalizing the national economy."

He continued, "Prioritizing customer value, we will actively resolve difficulties from the customer's perspective and identify latent customer needs to provide optimal solutions by establishing a company-wide service system. Along with strengthening our role as a corporate citizen through asset enhancement and welfare support for SME workers and win-win finance for socially vulnerable groups, we will also solidify our position as a leading ESG bank."

He also stated, "We will resolve imbalances between interest and non-interest income, as well as between the bank and subsidiaries, to enhance management stability, and faithfully implement the dual global financial belt expansion strategy targeting advanced and emerging countries to strengthen performance creation."

Furthermore, he said, "For these efforts to proceed smoothly, a robust bank is a prerequisite. Under thorough soundness management, we will reduce costs by simultaneously striving to lower loan loss provisions and funding costs, and expand new revenue sources through digital innovation," adding, "We will strengthen financial consumer protection such as preventing financial fraud and quickly establish an internal control management system based on a responsible structure to maintain and secure customer trust."

Meanwhile, after the opening ceremony, President Kim’s first schedule of the new year was to visit the Suwon Special City Small Business Association and Gucheon-dong Tool Market to listen to voices from the field, promising, "We will do our best to provide practical help necessary for small business owners to overcome the crisis." He then continued on-site communication by visiting branches in the Suwon area and the client company C&C International in sequence. C&C International is an ODM company for color cosmetics, and President Kim listened to the company’s management difficulties and promised active support to facilitate facility investments necessary for strengthening export competitiveness, such as factory expansion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.