Jang Min-young (장민영), head of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, held an inauguration ceremony on Thursday as the bank’s 28th chief executive at its headquarters in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul.

In his inaugural address, Jang said burdens on small and medium-sized firms are growing amid a compounded crisis of low growth and a major industrial transformation. He stressed that IBK should go beyond being a simple funding provider and become a financial partner leading industrial upgrading.

To that end, Jang plans to fully launch an IBK-style productive finance project that will invest 300 trillion won through 2030, using productive finance promoted by the government as a driver. He aims to sharply expand financial support for future new industries and innovative companies such as AI, semiconductors and energy.

He also plans to strengthen tailored finance by corporate life cycle and to expand capital market functions through an IBK National Growth Fund task force that brings together the innovation group’s capabilities with a loan screening system that reflects technological strength and growth potential.

“The most basic competitiveness of a financial institution is customers’ trust,” Jang said. “We will strengthen thorough financial consumer protection, internal controls and information security systems to proactively manage even unseen risks.”