KB Kookmin Wise Card gains growing popularity

KB Kookmin Wise Card has been attracting a growing number of customers thanks to a variety of noteworthy benefits.

The number of holders of its latest credit card surpassed 100,000 in the 18 days after its launch on March 2. By June 14, that number had reached 360,000.

The Wise Card is a first of its kind in the local market, allowing customers to cash in their usage points via ATMs at Kookmin Bank branches nationwide.

KB Kookmin Card president and CEO Choi Gi-eui set out his ambition to take the No. 1 position in the domestic market after the former Kookmin Bank unit was relaunched as a separate corporation during the first quarter of the year.

Parent KB Financial Group launched the stand-alone credit card firm eight years after the money-spinning unit was merged into the bank in 2003.

The unit had operated as Kookmin Credit Card until the credit card fiasco hit the nation’s financial markets.

As a unit of Kookmin Bank, the company had been in second place in the local market.

“The recent business environment surrounding the credit card industry is not favorable,” Choi said. “I believe we can retake first place on a mid- and long-term basis if we carry out goals with realistic possibilities rather than setting up reckless goals.”

He said the company will push ahead with diversifying products and expand the trendy credit card-telecommunication convergence sector including mobile-oriented products.

He also said the company will make the most of on the financial group’s branches nationwide to provide specialized services.

A KB Kookmin spokesman said the company is also considering launching new services like consumer financing and insurance in order to overtake our rivals.

The decision of KB Financial to float a stand-alone credit card affiliate was part of the group’s broader strategy to dilute its heavy dependency on banking profits and nurture earnings from non-banking units.