[1mm Finance Talk] "Secure Them in College": Regional Financial Institutions Move to Attract AI Talent

JB Financial Launches AI Competition for University Students
BNK and iM Financial Already Running Similar Programs
Existing Developers Strongly Prefer Seoul... "Securing Talent Before Employment"
Major Banks Establish In-House Talent Develo

The competition among banks to secure talent for artificial intelligence transformation (AX) is intensifying. In particular, regional financial institutions are taking steps to secure talent in advance by hosting competitions targeting university students.

According to the financial sector on December 15, JB Financial Group recently announced a bid for the "JB Financial AI Competition" project. It is reported that JB Financial is attempting an AI-related competition for the first time. The competition is expected to invite undergraduate and graduate students to propose AI-based solutions for projects that JB Financial Group is prioritizing. The competition will be divided into two tracks: one evaluating technical completeness and the other focusing on business ideas. JB Financial Group stated that the purpose of this initiative is "to discover outstanding talent in the AI field and to build a talent pipeline."

Looking at other regional financial institutions, JB Financial is also seen as trying to secure top talent in advance by offering benefits such as preferential treatment in recruitment to winning teams. A representative example of this strategy is iM Financial Group. iM Financial is running a digital talent development program called "iM Ready, iM Challenger." Sponsored by the Financial Supervisory Service, Google, Microsoft, AWS, and the Korean Patent Attorneys Association, the program consists of preliminary rounds, a main round, and a final round. Teams advancing to the final round receive one month of specialized training in AI, cloud, and big data, and then conduct a three-month research project with iM Financial's IT professionals. All final round winners are exempt from document screening and written tests when applying for positions at iM Financial Group affiliates (such as iM Bank and iM Securities). In addition, prize money (with the grand prize at 10 million won) and opportunities to visit the headquarters of global big tech companies in the United States are provided to the teams that win the grand prize, excellence award, and merit award.

Existing IT and AI developers tend to prefer the Seoul metropolitan area, especially Gangnam in Seoul and Pangyo in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. According to the "Wanted Developer Report" released by HR tech company Wantedlab in 2023, 65.4% of developers surveyed chose Gangnam over Pangyo as their preferred workplace. Pangyo was included as an option because it is home to a high concentration of IT companies, resulting in a large developer population. In the industry, it is said that developers are reluctant to commute beyond Gangnam Station to other areas in Seoul. Considering this tendency, regional financial institutions have determined that it is more efficient to secure new, unemployed talent early by offering various incentives and benefits, rather than targeting experienced developers.

Commercial banks operating mainly in the metropolitan area are ahead of regional banks not only in hosting AI-related competitions but also in running specialized talent development programs. Since 2022, KB Kookmin Bank has held the "IT's Your Life Hackathon" annually, providing young people with education in software and AI, after which graduates participate in financial IT projects. All winning teams receive certificates and prize money. Shinhan Bank has also been running a recruitment-linked program since 2023. Teams that pass the proposal screening among trainees of the Samsung Youth SW·AI Academy participate in the competition, and participants receive mentoring from current developers to directly implement new services for Shinhan Bank’s mobile platform for university students, "Hey Young Campus." Shinhan Bank awards certificates and prizes to all winning teams, and offers benefits such as exemption from the first interview and document screening in digital and ICT open recruitment.

Woori Financial Group is directly nurturing customized talent for the financial sector through its affiliates. Since 2023, Woori FIS, the group's IT solutions company, has been operating the "FIS Academy." The training program consists of three tracks: cloud service development, AI engineering, and cloud engineering, and runs for a total of 960 hours. Participants receive mentoring from industry professionals, work on projects using real financial data, and are given preferential treatment in affiliate recruitment. NongHyup Bank also held the "NH AI Idea Challenge," an AI-related idea competition, this year.

The competition to secure AI talent in the financial sector is expected to become even fiercer in the future. Shinhan Bank established a dedicated agile organization for AI by recruiting AI majors in its hiring process in the second half of this year. KB Kookmin Bank, in line with its goal set in 2018 to increase its digital workforce by 4,000 by 2025, is separately recruiting for IT and platform development roles. Hana Financial Group has announced plans to expand its in-house data specialists to 3,000 by 2027.