KB Financial's new head set to step down

SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- The board of KB Financial Group Inc. plans to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday, the group said, amid rising speculation that its new chief may express his intent to step down.

Kang Chung-won, president of the group's banking unit Kookmin Bank, was approved
on Dec. 4 by the group's board to lead South Korea's top financial services
company. The final approval is supposed to be made at a shareholders' meeting to
be held Jan. 7.
The board of directors plans to hold a meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday to discuss
whether to cancel the scheduled shareholders' meeting. The group has been in
discord with the national financial watchdog over the selection of the new
chairman and an ongoing investigation into its outside directors.
Financial sources said Kang is highly likely to reveal his intent to step down.
Kang, 58, was nominated to lead the group two months after Hwang Young-key
stepped down when the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) punished him for
inflicting investment losses worth of 1.62 trillion won (US$1.39 billion) on
Woori Bank. Hwang headed the state-owned bank and its parent in 2005 and 2007.
The meeting comes amid intense scrutiny by the FSS into alleged wrongdoings by
the group's outside directors who have wielded large influence on the process of
picking the group's chairman.
The financial regulator, which has prepared to overhaul the outside director
system at the nation's banks, asked KB Financial to postpone the process of
selecting its new chairman, but the group pushed through with the nomination.
Recently, the FSS launched a probe into alleged influence-peddling by the group's
outside directors.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr