Companies should develop their unique governance structure and advance it, taking into consideration the situations faced by them, industry characteristics, cultural differences, and more, the outgoing chairman of KB Financial Group said on Monday.

Yoon Jong-kyoo, chairman of KB Financial Group Inc., who is set to retire in November, made the remarks at a press conference on Monday, while speaking about the controversy over the governance structure of financial holding companies and the reappointment of holding company chairpersons.

“We need to think about whether there is a right answer to governance,” he said. “The idea that all companies can fit into the same framework may be a big misconception.”

Yoon noted that data from Harvard Business Review in 2018 showed the average tenure of CEOs of S&P 500 companies is 10.2 years, and The Economist pointed that the average tenure over the past 10 years is 7 years.

“Even if Korean financial companies aim to become global players, how can they make investments that pay off in the long run if they change CEOs every three or six years?” he asked.

Yoon cited the group’s achievements during his tenure, including regaining its status as a leading bank and financial holding company, strengthening its non-banking sector through acquisitions such as those of LIG Insurance Co. and Prudential Life Insurance Co., and establishing a management succession system.

“When I took office nine years ago, I said that I wanted to turn KB Kookmin Bank into a leading bank within three years, KB Financial Group back into a leading financial group within the following three years, and then join Asia‘s leading financial groups in the next three years,” he said, “Looking back, we have actually become a leading bank and financial group.”

By Lim Young-sin and Yoon Yeon-hae

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