JB Financial Group, the holding group of Jeonbuk Bank and Kwangju Bank, said Thursday it has launched a new division in charge of overseas business activities to expand its global presence. 

The banking giant appointed its incumbent senior executive officer, Yim Young-taick, formerly CEO of the group’s North Jeolla Province-based Jeonbuk Bank, to lead the newly launched global business division. 

Yim, 70, served as Jeonbuk Bank CEO since 2014 until his retirement in March. 

Yim played a key role in the bank’s acquisition of Phnom Penh Commercial Bank in Cambodia in 2016, while managing its Cambodian subsidiary, which logged a record-high annual net profit of 20.7 billion won ($18.3 million) in 2019. 

Under Yim’s leadership, the new division will ramp up the group’s business foothold in global markets through mergers and acquisitions and overseas outposts, officials said. 

“(JB Financial) has strengthened its operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam. We will continue to seek various business opportunities in various Southeast Asian countries,” the group said in a statement. 

JB Financial has been eyeing expansion in Southeast Asia since 2014. The group established a microfinance institution in Myanmar in 2016, which was incorporated as a subsidiary of the group’s JB Woori Capital. Last year, it also acquired a 100 percent stake in Morgan Stanley Gateway Securities -- a midsized brokerage headquartered in Hanoi -- and changed the company name to JB Securities Vietnam.

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)