Hana Financial Group, the nation’s second-largest banking group by assets, restructured its senior executive board to prepare for the imminent merger of its flagship banks Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank.

On Sunday, the group said it had conducted its regular year-end personnel appointments of its 39 executive members.

“We have minimized the range of top-level promotions so as to reduce the possible confusion in the run-up to the merger,” a spokesperson of Hana Financial Group said.

The group is pushing to finalize the merger with KEB by February next year.

In the latest reshuffle, only four senior executive directors were promoted ― two from each bank. Last year, six at Hana Bank and seven at KEB were promoted.

Of the four, KEB’s global business executive director Kwon Oh-hoon and Hana Bank’s Honam regional director Kim Jung-gi were made vice presidents. Kwon will also serve as chief overseas business strategist at Hana Financial Group.

Kim, who joined the Bank of Korea in 1986 and moved to Hana Bank in 1991, was recognized for his performance as business director at the bank’s Seocho headquarters and Honam headquarters, according to officials. Honam is the area spanning the Jeolla provinces.

Kwon, who had been promoted to executive director just a year ago, was made vice president in line with the group’s strategic refocus on overseas business.

Hana Financial merged the Chinese units of Hana Bank and KEB earlier this month and currently has 128 offices in 24 countries. The group’s chairman Kim Jung-tae had previously pledged to boost the proportion of overseas profits 40 percent by 2025, emphasizing that the group would seek to further expand KEB’s global reach.

Meanwhile, group officials said that this year’s personnel appointments were strictly based on performance, and that they were aimed to support the group’s plans to pursue sustainable overseas expansion.

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