KB Financial Group Chair Yang Jong-hee delivers a speech at the 2025 K-Business Leaders Forum held at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Thursday. (KB Financial Group)
KB Financial Group Chair Yang Jong-hee delivers a speech at the 2025 K-Business Leaders Forum held at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Thursday. (KB Financial Group)

KB Kookmin Bank is sharpening its focus on helping small and medium-sized enterprises navigate the challenges of artificial intelligence and global economic change, unveiling a growth vision that extends beyond traditional banking.

The strategy was highlighted Thursday at the 2025 K-Business Leaders Forum, hosted by the bank at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul. Themed “Co-Evolution: Corporate Strategy Evolving with AI,” the forum brought together around 340 participants, including CEOs of SMEs partnering with KB and senior executives of KB Financial Group, including Chair Yang Jong-hee.

At the opening ceremony, KAIST professor and neuroscientist Kim Dae-shik delivered a keynote speech titled “The Era of AGI Market Dominance: Intelligence that Redraws the Map of the Future, Insights for Corporate Survival and Prosperity.” The program also featured elective sessions — known as the KB Leaders Class — covering the global economy, humanities, physics and health, led by experts such as political scientist Kim Ji-yoon and Sungkyunkwan University professor Kim Beom-jun.

Alongside the thought leadership, KB emphasized its shared growth initiative for SMEs. The program centers on three pillars: renewing tailored financial products with preferential rates, providing guarantees and contributions to support strategic industries, and expanding technology finance for emerging sectors. The bank also provides ESG consulting to foster sustainable management and operates “KB Good Job,” a job-matching platform for SMEs facing labor shortages.

By pairing financial support with advisory services and thought leadership platforms like the forum, KB Kookmin Bank said it aims to serve not only as a lender but as a strategic partner in ensuring SME resilience and growth in the AI-driven era.

“Our goal is not just to lend,” KB Kookmin Bank CEO Lee Hwan-ju said. “It is to ensure that businesses have the right tools, insights and partnerships to survive and thrive in a changing world.”


andreahaneu@heraldcorp.com