KB Kookmin Bank

Business Challenge

As business paradigms change rapidly due to digitalization of enterprise environment and changes in regulations, significant changes are also becoming prominent in the finance industry. To step up to the challenges of the digital era, KB Kookmin Bank wanted to set on a Digital Transformation journey with the strategic goal of becoming the first choice of customers when choosing a digital banking partner.

Transformation

IBM Services is working with KB Kookmin Bank to enhance employee & customer experience and propel their vision for global expansion through process transformation of all the customer and employee touchpoints and reconstructing their global platform to be flexible to changing country and financial market needs.

Results

Business challenge story

Need for enterprise-wide innovation across all areas of bank

Formed in 2001 and headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, KB Kookmin Bank is a global financial institution leading the Asian Financial Industry. The company offers installment savings, time, and demand deposits; personal, mortgage, and deposit-backed loan products; bancassurance services; and mobile and tele-banking services. It also provides cash management, as well as custody, bank correspondence, wire-transfer, remittance, foreign currency, FX lounge, and foreign direct investment services.

Factors, such as appearance of Digital only banks and the rapid rise of Fintech companies, have led to tearing down of the boundaries of financial industry and to increased competition. In addition to this, the customers now in their 20-30s who will soon become the main customer base are “digital natives” and show the tendency to prefer financial services provided by IT companies to those provided by existing banks.

In order to respond to these changes in business environment and to the increasing competition, KB Kookmin Bank wanted to transform its customer & employee touch points by commencing a Digital transformation project spanning all areas of the bank.

Transformation Story

Higher efficiencies and enhanced customer experience

KB Kookmin Bank needed a partner with deep industry expertise and a wealth of experience in all the areas related to global platform implementation, innovation of processes, enhancing user experiences, etc. and that had the capability to connect this domain with digital technology. It partnered with IBM for an enterprise-wide digital innovation under two areas: 

• Innovations inwards: Process transformation for internal and external points of contact; customer interaction and user experience

Customer experience with internal employees and external parties has become a decisive factor in establishing the competitiveness of a financial service provider. KB Kookmin Bank thus wanted to transform its UI and processes into a One- Stop service through which employees can handle tasks in an easier and faster manner and promptly respond to the varied needs of customers. IBM performed an in-depth analysis of the complete system UI and work processes from an internal viewpoint and identified the inefficiencies. The processes were then restructured to improve user experience and resolve such inefficiencies. Ineffective or duplicate handling processes spanning overall work tasks in branches, such as loans, foreign exchange, retirement pension, reception (frequently used pages), were removed and the user interface of systems responding to customers was improved.

• Innovation outwards: Reconstruction of global platform

The need for global expansion is a key priority for KB Kookmin Bank as it aims to strengthen its potential for future growth. For this reason, there was a need to reconstruct the bank’s global platform that would enable a more rapid and flexible response to the distinct characteristics of each country and to the changes in the global finance market environment. Requirement analysis for the reconstruction has currently been completed. Over a thousand requirements have been identified during this process and basis the analysis the design of a global platform is underway. The platform would allow quick and easy deployment regardless of the type of the bank’s entry into the country and could be easily used by employees across the world.

Results Story

Becoming the customer’s first choice for a digital banking partner

KB Kookmin Bank aims to reach the stage at which ‘employee happiness’ is maximized by strengthening its digital base and to innovate the ‘work culture’ with a focus on people and employees. An analysis of all customer-facing service tasks has been performed and duplicate processes removed. Any ineffective system UI and task flows have been improved.

Benefits such as a creation of an environment in which employees can handle work tasks in an intuitive way, reduced speed of task processing, employee’s increased focus towards consultation services, will all contribute to a better image of the KB Kookmin Bank.

Reconstruction of global platform will enable flexible response to global business regardless of whether it is on domestic or international scene. KB Kookmin Bank anticipates that the bank will provide the value of challenge to IBM and that IBM will provide the value of its experience and that both companies will be able to experience mutual growth.

KB Kookmin Bank

KB Kookmin Bank is a global financial institution leading the Asian Financial Industry. It was formed in 2001 by a merger of government-run Kookmin Bank established in 1963 and the Housing & Commercial Bank established in 1969. KB Kookmin Bank provides various personal and corporate banking products and services worldwide. As of the end of 2018, the bank’s assets were worth KRW 358 trillion, operating through 1,057 domestic branches and 15 international branches in 10 countries serving over 30 million customers.  

Take the Next Step

Solution Components

• Digital Transformation for Banking

Trends and Insights

• Accelerating reinvention with digital banking frameworks
• Evolution through digital reinvention in banking

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