NongHyup Financial Group, the nation’s fourth-largest financial holding company by assets, has vowed to focus on asset management as its new growth engine.

As part of these efforts, the group’s chairman Yim Jong-yong said it would promote NongHyup CA Asset Management as a core unit, which could also merge with other entities to gain a sharper edge in the industry.

Yim also said the group would strategically place more people in the asset management arm, particularly in sectors such as research and development. 

These are all part of NongHyup Financial’s efforts to realign its group portfolio to strengthen its position as a financial group, the chairman stressed.

The new plans were set based on NongHyup’s strength in the asset management division, which received a boost through a joint venture with European asset management firm Amundi, group officials said.

“We have the largest number of distribution channels and we figured it’s important to have balanced growth in asset management,” Yim said.

NongHyup Financial Group has 5,956 distribution channels, including those run by local livestock federations.

To put more weight on the asset management business, NongHyup is introducing a chief information officer position, the first such action taken by a local financial group.

“The CIO will serve as a control tower to manage asset management strategies and evaluate their performance,” NongHyup officials said.

Last week, the group reshuffled its executives and hired experts specializing in asset management. Former Hanwha Life Insurance executive director Kim Hee-seok was named NongHyup’s new CIO.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)