KB launches new premium private banking brand

South Korea’s KB Financial Group on Thursday launched its new premium private banking and asset management brand to better cater to its wealthy clients.

“KB Gold & Wise the First” plans to adopt a “Credit Suisse-like” model in which private bankers and asset managers from KB Kookmin Bank and KB Securities and experts from areas such as investment, tax, real estate and trusts are brought together as a single team for their clients, according to the firm.

Clients can make new investments based on portfolio assessment services provided by the brand. The brand’s team will provide trust fund consulting as part of its “family office” services which aids clients’ inheritance and transfer of their personal assets including corporations.

One-step, easy loan assessment processes alongside recommendation of the best financial products in the industry will be provided for its clients as well.

In line with the launch of its new brand, KB is set to open the nation’s largest private asset management and banking branch on Sept. 6 in Seoul’s affluent neighborhood of Apgujeong.

Industry watchers say the new brand targets clients with personal assets over 3 billion won ($2.2 million).

KB’s new private banking services come 20 years after the firm’s first private banking brand KB Gold & Wise was established.

“We plan to cater to our clients’ needs and happiness by providing a tailored asset management service and by setting a new private banking trend,” a KB official said in a statement.

For the first half of the year, KB’s net profit came to 2.77 trillion won, up 11.2 percent on-year, according to a regulatory filing. Operating profit rose 2.38 percent to 3.5 trillion won, with revenue jumping 55.6 percent to 46.4 trillion won.

(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)