KB Financial Group said on Monday it will pursue the “KB National Happiness Growth and Hope project” centred on “growth” and “hope”, aiming to deliver financial results the public can feel.

The project’s core is to promote productive finance that supports corporate and industrial growth under “growth”, while classifying the role of providing stability and opportunity through financial inclusion as “hope”.

KB Financial on Sunday held the third group productive finance council meeting at KB Kookmin Bank’s new building in Seoul’s Yeouido to review progress and confirm detailed 2026 execution plans. Executives from the holding company and key affiliates attended, including those in investment banking, corporate finance, asset management, strategy, finance, research and ESG.

KB Financial overhauled the council’s operating framework by creating sub-councils for investment finance and corporate loans. It also expanded participation to include sales planning and ESG management to strengthen execution.

At the meeting, the group formalised its five-year productive finance plan as the “KB National Happiness Growth project” and set a 20 trillion won productive and inclusive finance execution plan for this year. The plan comprises a 2 trillion won National Growth Fund, 3 trillion won of the group’s own investments, 12 trillion won in corporate loans and 3 trillion won in inclusive finance.

To expand corporate investment, KB Financial will create a 200 billion won fund-of-funds annually and is also pursuing a plan to invest a total of 1 trillion won over five years. Affiliates including KB Kookmin Bank, KB Securities, KB Insurance, KB Life Insurance and KB Capital will jointly contribute capital to the fund.

The fund will be managed through a matching structure linked to the National Growth Fund, and the group expects it to have the effect of supplying up to 10 trillion won in investment resources over the next five years based on sub-funds.

KB Asset Management also secured a basis for linkage with policy finance after being selected as a consigned manager of a government public participation fund.

KB Kookmin Bank revised its 2026 key performance indicators by creating new productive finance metrics and reflecting them in branch evaluations. It also created a dedicated organisation for screening advanced strategic industries and secured external specialists to strengthen its corporate finance screening capabilities.

It also plans to build a system, in cooperation with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and others, that links the discovery of promising companies with growth support.

The council also discussed as a key agenda a strategy to identify early-stage innovative companies and foster them into unicorns. KB Financial plans to combine policy funds with its own investments to supply capital by company growth stage and to establish a comprehensive financial support system through cooperation among affiliates.

Kim Sung-hyun (김성현), head of the CIB Market Division, said, “The shift to productive finance is a key task for the group’s sustainable growth beyond finance’s social role.” He added, “We need to make finance that supports the real economy and customer growth a part of everyday activities.”