KB Financial Group chief says 'money move' era is opportunity, not crisis

KB Financial Group Chairman Yang Jong-hee called on all subsidiaries to pursue a comprehensive AI-driven redesign of their operations to offer customers integrated financial solutions in the era of the "money move" — a shift of funds from bank deposits into capital markets.

KB Financial Group held its "2026 Second-Half Group Executive Workshop" on Friday and Saturday at the KB Jaenianium training center in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, with about 270 group executives in attendance.

The workshop was organized to sharpen the group's medium- to long-term growth strategy amid rapidly shifting financial markets and a more competitive landscape, and to strengthen future competitiveness through cross-subsidiary collaboration.

This year's session reviewed the direction of the group's medium- to long-term management strategy currently being developed with a three-year horizon targeting 2027 to 2029.

Executives assessed structural shifts reshaping the financial industry — including capital market growth and the money-move trend, the spread of AI technology, and changes in the digital financial ecosystem — and examined the key tasks KB must tackle to lead the market.

The five core agenda items for the group's medium- to long-term strategy are: redesigning the wealth management and pension business model; securing differentiated competitiveness in small and medium-sized corporate business; strengthening the group's corporate and investment banking and capital market collaboration framework; advancing insurance business and investment management capabilities; and establishing a roadmap to accelerate the group's AI transformation.

In a special lecture, Yang said the group's greatest competitive advantage lies in its ability to offer customers comprehensive financial solutions. "To navigate the era of AI transformation and the money move, it is most important that all subsidiaries move together with the customer at the center," he said.

Yang said the money move "will be an opportunity to strengthen competitiveness in wealth management and asset management, not a crisis," and that productive finance "will be a turning point that expands KB's role in CIB and small and medium-sized enterprise business." He called on staff to "review working methods and processes and carry out a full-scale redesign based on AI" to build systemic competitiveness, adding that the group must "drive structural change with the most differentiated thinking that goes beyond conventional inertia."

KB Financial has set a target to supply 17 trillion won ($11.3 billion) in inclusive finance between 2026 and 2030. Against its 2026 target of 3 trillion won, the group had already supplied 2.5 trillion won by the end of June. It has since added supplementary targets — including 3.5 trillion won in mid-rate private loans not part of the original plan — bringing this year's total tailored financial support to around 7 trillion won.

In the first half of the year, KB Financial restructured 444.1 billion won in debt and wrote off 210 billion won in bonds. In the second half, it plans to restructure 461.6 billion won in bonds and write off more than double the first-half amount.