KB Financial Recommends Lee Myung-hwal from Korea Institute of Finance as New Outside Director Candidate

The Outside Director Candidate Recommendation Committee of KB Financial Group announced on the 21st that it has recommended Lee Myung-hwal, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute of Finance (Head of the Overseas Financial Cooperation Support Center), as a new outside director candidate for a two-year term. Along with this, the existing outside directors Kwon Sun-joo, Oh Kyu-taek, and Choi Jae-hong were recommended as candidates for reappointment for a one-year term.

Born in 1964, candidate Lee graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Economics, then joined the Bank of Korea to gain practical experience. Afterwards, he moved to the Korea Institute of Finance, where he served as Head of the Macroeconomics and International Finance Research Division, Head of the Corporate Debt Research Center, Head of Planning and Cooperation, and Deputy Director.

Candidate Lee holds a Ph.D. in Economics and is a macroeconomics expert. The recommendation committee evaluated that he has a high level of understanding of finance overall and possesses expertise in international financial markets. Additionally, he has served as an outside director at various financial institutions and has acted as an advisor to the Financial Services Commission and the Bank of Korea.

Candidate Lee was recommended through the process of the candidate recommendation committee, which is composed solely of outside directors and operates independently. This system, which KB Financial introduced proactively in 2015, proceeds in three stages, with the entities responsible for each stage strictly separated to ensure transparency and fairness, according to internal and external evaluations in the financial sector.

The recommendation committee stated, "Given the ongoing uncertainty in the financial market, if candidate Lee, a financial and economic expert with global expertise, joins, it is expected that diversity and expertise will be enhanced together with the existing board members, playing a significant role on the board." They added, "Going forward, the KB Financial Group board will continue to do its best to further enhance the value for shareholders and various stakeholders."

Meanwhile, the recommended candidate is scheduled to be officially appointed as an outside director of KB Financial following the resolution at the regular shareholders' meeting to be held on March 22.