[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Gwangju Bank announced on the 18th that it held the 2nd quarter management strategy meeting of this year at the KJ Sangsaeng Maru on the 3rd floor of the head office.
At this management strategy meeting, an awards ceremony was held for employees who achieved excellent performance in the 1st quarter to boost employee morale. Presentations were made on outstanding sales cases by each department and the plans for the 2nd quarter. In addition, Choi Jin-min, Senior Vice President of Kakao Enterprise, was invited to give a special lecture on responding to rapidly changing digital trends.
Song Jong-wook, President of Gwangju Bank, stated, “In the post-pandemic era, it is time to actively respond to the new challenges and opportunities facing the banking industry. We must seek ways to enhance the maturity of digital business beyond simple digitalization, and focus on securing sustainable future growth engines by proactively responding to various risk factors such as climate risk and cybersecurity in addition to traditional risks.” He added, “We will boldly implement changes and innovations for growth as a 100-year bank.”
He also emphasized, “I hope that the management philosophy of ‘coexisting with the local economy and walking together with local residents’ will be prioritized, and that you will carry out regionally focused management and inclusive finance with the sense of mission as the representative bank of Gwangju and Jeonnam.”
He then outlined the key initiatives as follows: ▲ Securing a solid foundation through strengthening field-centered sales capabilities ▲ Implementing channel optimization strategies that quickly respond to changes in customer needs ▲ Diversifying business structure by enhancing asset management capabilities in response to wealth transfer, changes in customer investment tendencies, and increased asset management needs ▲ Strengthening proactive soundness management to maintain the highest level of soundness among regional banks.
Since Song Jong-wook’s inauguration as president, Gwangju Bank has achieved record-breaking performance every year, reaching a historic high net profit of 196.5 billion KRW last year. Recently, it celebrated a double honor by ranking first for five consecutive years since 2018 in the regional bank category of the ‘2022 Korea Industry Brand Power (K-BPI).’ The bank received high evaluations in loyalty categories such as image, preference, and accessibility, achieving an impressive feat of maintaining first place without fail since President Song’s appointment.
The five consecutive years of first-place results are attributed to the bank’s empathy with regional social issues as a representative regional bank, leading efforts to solve them, and the social contribution activities and financial support carried out in the process, which have fostered warm exchanges with local residents.
In fact, President Song of Gwangju Bank visited local small and medium-sized enterprises in Gwangju and Jeonnam last month to understand the difficulties caused by the economic downturn due to COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine situation affecting regional export-import companies. He listened directly to their concerns and carefully considered practical financial support measures. He also emphasized field-centered management to employees, urging systematic regionally focused management to minimize damage to the local economy and provide timely financial support to local SMEs and middle-to-low income groups.
Focusing on regionally focused management and inclusive finance, Gwangju Bank provides prompt and swift financial support to local self-employed and small business owners when needed.
Since 2018, the bank has made special contributions totaling 5.4 billion KRW to the Gwangju Credit Guarantee Foundation and 4.7 billion KRW to the Jeonnam Credit Guarantee Foundation. This year, it plans to contribute 1 billion KRW each to the Gwangju Credit Guarantee Foundation and Jeonnam Credit Guarantee Foundation, and 150 million KRW to the Dong, Seo, and Buk District Offices of Gwangju Metropolitan City to support special guarantee loans for small business owners. As of the end of March 2022, Gwangju Bank’s financial support to self-employed and small business owners affected by COVID-19 reached 28,914 cases and 1.3026 trillion KRW.
The bank is also focusing on strengthening digital financial competitiveness through upskilling internal capabilities centered on digital and IT, including a full revamp of personal and corporate smart banking, full implementation of MyData, operation of a digital finance center dedicated to managing non-face-to-face customers, and organizational restructuring in the digital sector.
Keeping pace with the rapid digitalization of finance, the bank has recently launched a series of mobile-based non-face-to-face products such as ‘Horatchacha Digital Deposit,’ ‘Solsolhan MY Digital Savings,’ and ‘Hope Plus Special Guarantee Loan,’ a non-visit non-face-to-face guarantee corporate loan, diversifying its digital products. It is also conducting joint marketing and developing loan and credit card products exclusively for new filer customers through the first-ever agreement in the financial sector among the bank, credit rating agency KCB, and fintech company Finda.
Going forward, the bank plans to promote group account services and build non-face-to-face secured loans, expand external partnership services such as healthcare, credit management, and delivery services in the MyData business, and plan new channels to support digitalized work in areas requiring external sales. It also plans to operate virtual branches and promotional centers to enter the metaverse market.
Beyond fundamental digitalization of finance, Gwangju Bank does not miss communication with customers through digital media. It actively promotes and shares the bank’s various information, events, and new products via social network services (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to enhance brand promotion and sharing. It also strengthens the bridge between the bank and customers through SNS supporter selection for employees and YouTube contests for employees and customers.
Having built a solid foundation through qualitative growth and structural improvement in 2021, Gwangju Bank plans to leap forward as a sustainable 100-year bank with the highest profitability and soundness among regional banks, beyond the title of representative bank of Gwangju and Jeonnam in 2022.
Based on this year’s slogan ‘Start First (Start Boldly), Move Fast (Execute Quickly) 2022,’ the bank has set six major tasks: ▲ Expanding loans to local SMEs ▲ Practicing inclusive finance centered on middle and low-income groups ▲ Strengthening digital competitiveness and securing future growth engines ▲ Proactive soundness management ▲ Enhancing efficiency through channel optimization ▲ Establishing an ESG management system, and is focusing its capabilities to achieve these goals.
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