KB chief mulls downsizing 10% of workforce

Senior employees about to retire will be encouraged to take early retirement compensation package.

KB Financial Group Chairman Euh Yoon-dae said that the banking group will restructure around 2,000 senior employees or about 10 percent of its workforce “through attrition” in order to make it financially strong enough for overseas expansion.

Euh told reporters on Oct. 8 that the group will also slash the annual employment of fresh graduates to 100 next year from the usual 600. Last month, he told The Korea Times that he would seek to turn the bank around.

“It is the consensus of the market that KB needs a restructuring of its human resources. You ask anybody, and they will give you the same answer,” he said during lunch with reporters, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s annual conference.

“We are not going to let go of young employees in their 30s. It will be senior employees with two or three more years to go, who will be encouraged to take an early retirement compensation package, so they can prepare for life after work.”

He did not elaborate on the exact timeline of the restructuring plan. KB affiliates have some 27,000 employees now — more than any of its rival banking groups in Korea.

View the full story in Korea Times.