The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, the nation's primary mutual financial institution, said Thursday that its acting president, Kim In, has been voted as the new chairman.

This is the first time that the KFCC has voted its head through a direct election system in the institution's 60-year history. Until now, 350 representatives were selected to indirectly elect the president.

Beating eight other candidates, Kim secured the top post by winning 539 votes out of the 1,194 votes directly cast by presidents of the regional credit unions. The voting took place Thursday at the MG Human Resources Development Institute in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

Born in 1952, Kim has served as the regional president of the credit union in Namdaemun, central Seoul. He has been the acting leader of the KFCC since August, when former President Park Cha-hoon was indicted over bribery allegations.

While the original term of a KFCC president is four years, Kim, voted through a by-election, will serve until March 2026 when Park's remaining term comes to an end.

The history of the KFCC goes back to 1963, when several cooperatives came together with the mission to rebuild war-torn regional economies. The federation was officially established in 1973 upon the enactment of a community credit cooperative law, aimed at the sound development of credit cooperatives and the promotion of mutual growth. It now supervises nearly 1,3000 credit unions across the country.