NH NongHyup Bank said Monday that it will hire Lee Sang-rae, a former executive of Samsung SDS as its chief digital officer, a position that has been vacant for nearly six months. Lee, 56, is the first outsider to the bank to take a senior post. The lender launched a digital finance department in 2018.

Having in 1991 joined Samsung SDS, the information and communication technology service arm of Samsung Electronics, Lee climbed the corporate ladder by serving senior posts at various departments, including solution consulting, data analysis and digital marketing. 

With the new CDO, the lender appears to be gearing up for a digital transformation in banking and other financial services. 

“Ranging from planning to system building, Lee has built extensive work experiences,” a bank official said. “CDO handles key digital businesses including open banking, MyData and Robotic Process Automation, which is why it has taken a long period of time to find the right person for the job.”

The post has been vacant since Nam Young-soo, a vice president, left late last year. Jang Seung-hyun, a senior vice president of Nonghyup Bank, has been filling the leadership vacuum.

Under the slogan of “digital human bank”, NH NongHyup has sped up its digital initiatives. A consortium of NH NongHyup’s key finance units was recently selected as the MyData operator by the government to develop an open platform for personal asset management. 

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)