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(2nd LD) Former KB Financial CFO named as banking group's new head

All News 20:38 October 22, 2014

(ATTN: ADDS comments in paras 9-12)
By Kim Boram

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- Former chief financial officer of KB Financial Yoon Jong-kyoo on Wednesday was named as the new chairman of the banking group, the company said.

Yoon, 59, will fill the vacant post at South Korea's second-biggest banking group by market value, replacing Lim Young-rok who resigned after an ugly internal conflict with the group's flagship Kookmin Bank President Lee Kun-ho over an expensive computational system change.

The group's nine-member panel picked the group's new leader after a marathon interview with four shortlisted candidates including Yoon.

The other candidates were current Citibank Korea President Ha Yung-ku, former Kookmin Bank Vice President Kim Ki-hong and former Kookmin Card Vice President Ji Dong-hyun.

Yoon earned the required six votes to be elected as the single nominee, according to KB Financial.

The race had essentially boiled down to whether the panel chooses someone from within the group's circle or an outsider, namely Ha. The Kookmin Bank union opposed an external figure.

"The panel will recommend Yoon for the new chairman to the board of directors that will meet next Wednesday after a background check," said the company in a statement.

Yoon's appointment must be endorsed at a shareholders meeting on Nov. 21.

He said he will do his best to normalize the company to regain consumer confidence and draw up a long-term plan on a power succession system.

"As I was named as the chairman from KB Financial's inner circle, our company is standing at a turning point for restoring morale of our workers and solidifying unity," Yoon said. "I will surely strengthen our capability and regain the status as South Korea's leading bank."

The labor union of Kookmin Bank, which has strongly opposed the outsider Ha as its new leader, welcomed Yoon's nomination, citing that the resigned chairman was a former government official.

"It's good to avoid the worst-case scenario," the union said. "It is necessary for the company to improve succession and governing systems to prevent (political) influence peddling in the future."

Yoon started his career at the Korea Exchange Bank in 1973 and became an accountant in the early 1990s. He was recruited by a former Kookmin Bank president in 2002 to work as the bank's deputy president.

After stepping down from the bank post in 2004 due to an accounting failure, Yoon returned to KB Financial as the CFO in 2010.

KB Financial has been caught up in a whirlwind of internal power struggle for months between the leaders of the holding company and its flagship bank.

The internal feud became very much public as financial authorities slapped punishments on the leaders, culminating with their resignations.

Shares of KB Financial rose 3.22 percent to 38,500 won (US$36.6) on the Seoul bourse on Wednesday, with the benchmark KOSPI surging 1.13 percent. Yoon's nomination was announced after the market closed.

(2nd LD) Former KB Financial CFO named as banking group's new head - 2

brk@yna.co.kr
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