Next Korea Citibank President Candidate 'Outline'... Shortlist at the Nomination Committee on the 25th (Comprehensive)

Interest Grows as Yoo Myeong-sun Becomes Final Candidate for Senior Deputy CEO
Encouraging Appointment of Female CEO at Parent Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] The next president of Citibank Korea will be revealed on the 25th. Attention is focused on whether Yoo Myung-soon, the senior vice president and a leading candidate for the next president, will make it into the final shortlist.

According to the financial sector on the 23rd, Citibank will hold a meeting of the Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee (ECRC) on the afternoon of the 25th to finalize the shortlist of candidates for the next CEO. Typically, the shortlist consists of 3 to 4 candidates from both inside and outside the bank. A Citibank official stated, "We will hold the first ECRC meeting on that day to discuss the final candidates, and then decide on the final candidate through a second ECRC meeting in early next month."

The ECRC, attended by four outside directors and the current president Park Jin-hoe, will nominate candidates, after which the board of directors and the general shareholders' meeting will be held sequentially to complete the appointment process.

Following President Park's decision to retire after serving for six years since October 2014, a new figure will take over as the next president. Park's term ends on the 27th of next month.

It is reported that President Park effectively concluded his duties as of the 31st of last month. As the chairman of the bank's board of directors, who holds the authority to approve the appointment of the final candidate, Park's intentions are expected to significantly influence the selection of the next president.

Interest centers on whether Senior Vice President Yoo will be included in the final candidate pool. Inside and outside the bank, it is widely expected that Yoo will comfortably make the final shortlist. In the financial sector, the prevailing view is that Yoo would become the first female president of Citibank Korea and the first female president of a domestic commercial bank.

Born in 1964, Senior Vice President Yoo is a rare female expert in corporate banking (IB). After graduating from Ewha Womans University with a degree in English Education, she joined Citibank Korea in 1987 and has held positions such as head of the Large Corporate Risk Department, head of the Corporate Finance Product Division, head of the Multinational Corporate Finance Division, and vice president of the Corporate Finance Product Division. In 2014, she also served as the head of corporate finance at JP Morgan's Seoul branch. Returning to Citibank, she currently leads the Corporate Finance Group. President Park also became president after a long career in IB.

The fact that the parent company, Citigroup in the U.S., recently appointed a female CEO also raises the possibility of Yoo becoming president. Michael Corbat, who has served as Citigroup CEO for eight years, announced on the 10th that he plans to step down from the CEO position and the board next February. The Citigroup board has appointed Jane Fraser, the global consumer finance CEO, as Corbat's successor.

So far, there has been a case of a female president in Korea with Kwon Sun-joo, the former president of Industrial Bank of Korea. However, Industrial Bank of Korea is a policy bank where the Financial Services Commission recommends and the president appoints, indicating government influence.

A financial sector official said, "While an internal foreign executive or an external third-party figure could become a candidate for president, this possibility does not seem high."