Kookmin Bank celebrated its 16th anniversary on Wednesday, amid anticipations that it would become the nation’s largest commercial bank this year.

Yoon Jong-kyoo, chief executive officer of KB Financial Group and its flagship Kookmin Bank, said 2017 is “(the bank’s) first year as a leading bank” in a speech at the anniversary event.

This came days after KB Financial Group and Kookmin Bank were found to have both outperformed Shinhan Financial Group and its commercial Shinhan Bank in terms of net profit and net interest margin this year as of the third quarter.

On Thursday, Kookmin Bank’s net income from January to September this year came to 1.84 trillion won ($1.65 billion), up 15.8 percent on-year. It was 145.4 billion won larger than that of the No. 2 Shinhan Bank, according to Shinhan’s Monday data.

The net profit of KB Financial Group over the cited period reached 2.76 trillion won, up 63.2 percent on-year and 51.3 billion won larger than Shinhan Financial Group.

Both of the two leading banking groups in South Korea took quarterly record-high net profits in the third quarter of 2017.

Kookmin Bank’s and Shinhan Bank’s net interest margin, designed to gauge a bank’s ability to secure profits, came to 1.74 percent and 1.56 percent, respectively.

But as a leader in the rapidly-changing banking environment, Yoon urged his executives and staff to increase their go-for-it spirit, customer-centric approach and agility.

Yoon also called for support for Hur Yin, vice president of the bank, who has been nominated to succeed him on Nov. 21. Yoon will hold on to the title of KB Financial Group chief.

Kookmin Bank was founded on Nov. 1, 2001, after Kookmin Bank agreed on a merger with the state-run Housing & Commercial Bank on an equal footing.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)