As KB Financial Group picked Lim Young-rok as its new chairman on Wednesday, attention is being paid to who will head the nation’s No. 2 bank under the financial group.

KB Kookmin Bank president and CEO Min Byong-deok offered to resign from the post after running unsuccessfully for the chairmanship.

Currently, KB Kookmin Card CEO Choi Gi-eui, KB Financial Group vice president Yoon Jong-kyu and KB Kookmin Bank vice president Kim Ok-chan are the strongest candidates for the top post, bank sources said.

In 2010, Choi Gi-eui went up against the bank’s just-resigned CEO Min for the presidency. As Min won the position, Choi took the helm of KB’s card sector.

The group may pick Choi for diversity, observers said, as he is from the former Housing & Commercial Bank and Min is from the former Kookmin Bank. The two banks merged in 2001.

Yoon Jong-kyu moved to KB Financial Group as vice president in 2002 from Samil Accounting Corp., which became today’s Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2004.

Yoon has served as chief financial officer for the group with i chairman Lim Young-rok since 2010.

Kim Ok-chan has served Kookmin Bank for 31 years since he joined the bank in 1982.

Meanwhile, Lim is expected to take office as chairman after receiving approval in meetings of shareholders and the board of directors next week.

Observers pointed out that it is rare for a private financial group to hand over the helm to a former state official.

Having a bureaucrat-turned-chairman will boost the likelihood that KB will become the buyer of much-disputed Woori Financial Group, which has had three failed privatization attempts.

Lim’s career history provoked the group’s labor union, however. The union said appointing a former public servant will result in a new way of bureaucratization of private financial firms.

In contrast, high-profile bureaucrats, including Financial Services Commission head Shin Je-yoon told press on June 1 that “he sees no problem in former bureaucrats taking the helm over private financial firms, as long as they have the ability for the post.”

Lim has built his career as a public servant for more than three decades after he passed the 20th public administration examination. He became KB Financial Group president and CEO in 2009, when previous chairman Euh Yoon-dae took the chairmanship.

A power replacement tornado is expected to take place starting next week, as the unfinished appointment of key posts in KB Financial Group and its affiliate companies begin to be fixed.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)