Korea’s BNK Financial Group mulls buying insurance company

Bin Dae-in, chief executive officer of BNK Financial Group [Photo provided by BNK Financial Group]

BNK Financial Group Inc., the holding company of South Korea’s regional lenders Busan Bank and Kyongnam Bank, is considering acquisition an insurance company to become a comprehensive financial institution and will address the inefficiencies in the banking system.

“Banking, securities and insurance are segments that form a comprehensive financial institution, and in this sense, BNK is incomplete,” Bin Dae-in, chief executive officer of BNK Financial Group said Monday. “We are paying attention to smaller, Internet-based insurance companies or even offshore insurers because we don’t have the adequate level of capital to buy a large-scale insurer.”

The comments were made at a press conference held to mark one month since Bin became CEO.

“We will make efforts to benefit from keeping both Busan Bank and Kyongnam Bank separate,” Bin said. “The focus should be more on how to improve overall efficiency in our system. I don’t have any answers to any possibilities of a merger between the two banks within my term.”

Bin said that the company is considering integrating data systems in the two banks, which have been the most inefficient. “The two lenders’ separate data systems have wasted at least 100 billion won ($75.75 million) a year,” he said. “Unlike the former administration, the current authority supports our view that an integration of the data systems is necessary to address inherent inefficiencies.”