KB Financial’s new chief Yoon Jong-kyoo wasted no time in voicing his determination to take over LIG Insurance.

“(The takeover of LIG Insurance) is an indispensable part of our plans for creating synergy,” Yoon said Friday at a general shareholders’ meeting, where he was unanimously voted as the head of the financial group.

With the comments, he effectively dismissed suggestions from the Financial Services Commission to reconsider the acquisition of the ailing insurer.

“Considering phenomena such as the aging society and low birth here in Korea, insurance businesses have a bigger potential for growth. It is crucial that we take over LIG Insurance and create a synergy with our conventional businesses,” Yoon said.

He also stressed that the group’s heavy reliance on its bank was another reason for diversification.

“KB Financial Group is currently too dependent on KB Kookmin Bank, which means that the group’s nonbanking sector is still very weak,” Yoon said. The bank accounts for about 85 percent of KB Financial Group’s total assets.

The chairman will concurrently serve as the head of KB Kookmin Bank until the organization is stabilized and the bank is reinstated to its previous status as the nation’s leading bank. Eventually, he said, the group’s chairman post will be separated from the bank’s president post.

Yoon was selected in October as the sole candidate for the group’s chairman position, which has been vacant since former chairman Lim Young-rok was dismissed in September.

Lim, along with former KB Kookmin Bank president Lee Kun-ho, was reprimanded for the leadership feuds over the bank’s computing system replacement.

The group’s leadership disintegration led to a general consensus that the next chairman should be chosen from within the group and that leadership should be converged to one person for the time being.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)