| Kookmin Bank | |||||||||
| Type: | Subsidiary | ||||||||
| Location: | Seoul, South Korea | ||||||||
| Key People: | Hur Yin, (CEO) | ||||||||
| Num Employees: | 26,000 | ||||||||
| Products: | Financial services | ||||||||
| Parent: | KB Financial Group | ||||||||
| Homepage: | omoney.kbstar.com | ||||||||
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Kookmin Bank, also known as KB Kookmin Bank, is a bank headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was the largest bank in Korea and the 60th largest in the world as of 2017.[1] The name Kookmin Bank is a contraction of Citizens National Bank, an English name by which it also used to be referred to in the past.
The Citizens National Bank was founded by the Korean government in late 1962, initially focused on providing financial services for middle- and low-income consumers. Its privatization process was initiated by the sale of a 10 percent stake by initial public offering in 1994. Meanwhile, Kookmin Bank expanded abroad by opening operations in Luxembourg in 1991, Tokyo in 1992, Singapore in 1994, and Hong Kong in 1996, followed by other locations around the world.[2]
Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Kookmin Bank absorbed a number of distressed or insolvent banks, including Daedong Bank in 1998, then Long-Term Credit Bank as announced on,[3] then in 2001. In May 1999, Goldman Sachs invested $500 million into KB and became its largest single shareholder with a 17 percent equity stake, ahead of the Korean government which at the time held 7.2 percent.[4] By 2002, Goldman Sachs had sold most of its investment with a significant profit.[5] At that point, Kookmin had become the largest bank in South Korea. The privatization process was completed in December 2003.
In September 2004, Kookmin Bank said it would restate its 2003 and 2004 earnings after a financial watchdog found that the bank avoided $270 million in taxes.[6]
KB further acquired various companies include credit card, insurance and brokerage firms, transforming into the current financial group in 2008.[7]