KB highlights anti-fragility as 2024 investment strategy

KB Financial Group held a conference Thursday, diagnosing the current market situation and sharing with its individual and corporate clients the group’s future investment philosophies to tackle uncertainties surrounding the global market.

Titled “KB Investor Insights 2024,” the event was held at the KB Kookmin Bank's headquarters in Seoul, under the theme “anti-fragility," which refers to an ability to respond to and gain from uncertainties, and disorder.

The term was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a renowned professor and former trader and hedge fund manager who authored "The Black Swan."

The new chairman of the financial giant, Yang Jong-hee, and other top executives including KB Securities' co-CEO Park Jeong-rim attended the event, among others.

Yang stressed the importance of identifying and distinguishing market uncertainties -- unstable global supply chain, persistently high-interest rates and geopolitical risks -- from broader uncertainties of the current times: population decline, climate change and emergence of artificial intelligence.

“In an era where uncertainty has become a norm, it is important to have evolved crisis response,” Yang said.

“Anti-fragility is the vital quality for the company, clients, and society to possess.”

To achieve anti-fragility, he explained it was vital to establish a robust safety net immune to shocks, accept and compensate for risks based on the stable safety net established, and cultivate the ability to flexibly accept and respond when uncertainties become reality.

Additionally, Yang pledged to spare no resources in supporting the balanced growth of the entire society and creating a better society to realize customer happiness.

In the panel discussion that followed, executives from the sectors of wealth management and retail, investment banking, asset management and ESG shared their strategies and implementation plans to respond to changes in the market.

“Going forward, we will put our clients' interest first in our future management and leverage our expertise and systematic risk management skills to ensure that they can continue to reap stable profits,” a KB financial group official said in a statement.

Thursday’s event was co-organized alongside “'KB Analyst Day 2023,” where KB Securities' financial analysts shared future outlooks with institutional investors.