KB Kookmin Card aims to top competition

The bank will set eyes on product diversity and convergence with telecom sector.

KB Kookmin Card set out its ambition to take the No. 1 position in the domestic market as the former Kookmin Bank unit, restarted as a separate corporation on Wednesday.

KB Financial Group launched the stand-alone credit card firm eight years after the money-spinning unit was merged into the bank in 2003.

The unit had been renamed KB Kookmin Card while it had operated businesses as Kookmin Credit Card until before the credit card fiasco hit the nation’s financial markets.

During the launching event in Seoul, KB Kookmin Card president & CEO Choi Gi-eui unveiled his vision of capturing the dominant market share in the coming years.

The company ― while it was a unit of Kookmin Bank ― has been in second place following the No. 1, Shinhan Card, a subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group.

“The recent business environment surrounding the credit card industry is not favorable,” Choi said. “I believe we can retake first place on a mid- and long-term basis if we carry out goals with realistic possibilities rather than setting up reckless goals.”

View the full story in Korea Herald.