Chief Executive Park Bong-kwon, who has led Kyobo Securities for six years, is seeking a fourth consecutive term. With the firm poised to step up as a comprehensive financial investment business (IBT), attention is on whether Kyobo Securities will maintain a "long-term CEO system."
According to the financial investment industry on the 11th, the executive recommendation committee of Kyobo Securities recently recommended Park as the next CEO candidate and plans to submit his reappointment to the board at the end of this month. A final decision will be made at the regular shareholders meeting in March.
Park joined Kyobo Life Insurance, the parent company of Kyobo Securities, handling stock and bond management, then worked at HDC Holdings Asset Management, Fides Asset Management, and the National Pension Service before taking the CEO post at Kyobo Securities in 2020. He won additional terms in 2022 and 2024 and has now led the company for six years.
Kyobo Securities currently operates under a co-CEO system, with Park overseeing wealth management (WM) and investment banking (IB), and CEO Lee Seok-ki in charge of management support and sales and trading (S&T). Lee's term runs through March 2027.
If Park secures a fourth term, he would serve more than eight years. In that case, he would become one of the longest-serving securities CEOs. The longest-serving CEO to date is Vice Chairman and CEO Choi Hee-moon of Meritz Securities, who took office in Feb. 2010 and served until Nov. 2023 for 13 years. He is followed by former Kyobo Securities CEO Kim Hae-jun (13 years) and former Korea Investment & Securities Co. CEO Yoo Sang-ho (12 years).
That would far exceed the industry average. According to 2018 data from the Korea Capital Market Institute, the median tenure of 179 securities CEOs between 2001 and 2016 was three years, with an average of 42.6 months (3.5 years). Excluding controlling-shareholder CEOs (92 months), the typical range is 32 to 36 months, making professional managers serving six years or more relatively rare.
The industry sees Park as likely to win another term. With the major project of entering the comprehensive financial investment business (IBT) underway, analysts say the current leadership is more likely to be maintained than to undergo an abrupt change. The continued improvement in results since Park took office also supports the outlook for another term.
During his tenure, Park has focused on entering the IBT. Once designated, the firm can offer prime brokerage services (PBS) for hedge funds, and the corporate credit provision limit expands from 100% to 200% of equity capital.
Furthermore, if equity capital exceeds 4 trillion won, the firm would be recognized as a mega investment bank, securing a funding base through businesses such as issuance-backed notes. As the securities industry has been realigning around large players with strong capital, whether a firm wins IBT approval is seen as a key inflection point that determines the competitiveness of mid-sized securities companies.
Kyobo Securities is accelerating capital expansion through rights offerings and other measures. Equity capital rose from 960.4 billion won at the end of 2019 to 2.1231 trillion won as of Nov. 2025. However, it is still about 900 billion won short of the 3 trillion won required for IBT status.
The improvement in results also bolsters the chances of another term. Operating profit at Kyobo Securities rose from 51.7 billion won in 2022 to 70.3 billion won in 2023 and 113.9 billion won in 2024, while net profit over the same period increased from 43.3 billion won to 67.6 billion won and 117.7 billion won.