---
endpoint: analytics
pattern: Financial Services
status: done
latency_ms: 128267
conversation_id: aa0165fe-26e1-4c36-820d-fa308ef5a879
citations: 5
created: 2026-05-31 19:54:54Z
---

# Who are the key customers and suppliers of KB Financial?

## KB Financial Group (105560-KR) — Customers and Suppliers

**Important framing:** KB Financial Group is a Korean financial holding company (commercial banking, securities, credit card, insurance, asset management) — it does not have a manufacturing-style supply chain. "Customers" maps to borrowers, depositors, and fee-paying clients of its subsidiaries; "suppliers" maps to providers of funding (deposits, wholesale debt, capital) and ancillary product manufacturers (insurers, asset managers) whose products KB distributes.

---

### Key Customer Base

KB's customer franchise is anchored at KB Kookmin Bank (the flagship subsidiary), with revenue contribution from securities, card, insurance, and WM clients on top. As of Q3 2024, the bank's total won-denominated loan book was **KRW 362tn**, split roughly evenly between household and corporate exposures [1].

| Customer segment | Exposure / role | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| **Household / retail borrowers** | KRW 176tn (Q3 2024 loans) [1] | Mortgages, Jeonse (lease deposit) loans, unsecured personal loans, credit card. Growth capped by regulatory DSR / household-loan ceiling — 2026 growth target only 1–2% [2]. |
| **Corporate borrowers (large-cap)** | KRW 186tn corporate loans Q3 2024 [1] | KB has explicitly pivoted to large corporates and "future-core" CIB customers as household lending is throttled. 2026 corporate-loan growth target 6–7% [2]. |
| **SME / SOHO borrowers** | Component of corporate book [2] | Higher-yield but rising delinquency in 1Q25 made management more selective on SoHo growth [2]. |
| **Securities / brokerage clients** | KB Securities revenue [3][5] | Brokerage fees and asset-management fees were a key driver of group fee income exceeding KRW 1tn for the first time in Q2 2025 [3]. KB is also a candidate for the new IMA (Integrated Money Account) securities licence, where it competes for retail-issued commercial-paper subscribers [5]. |
| **Insurance / bancassurance customers** | KB Insurance / KB Life [3] | Bancassurance commissions were a stated driver of higher non-interest income in 1H 2025 [3]. |
| **Wealth management / HNW clients** | High-margin fee pool | "Ultra-high asset customers" served with differentiated asset-management offerings; tightly linked to MyData distribution. |
| **Credit-card holders** | KB Kookmin Card | A ~KRW 90tn-scale card receivables book historically; 1Q25 card-asset-quality actions (NPL sales) were a focus of group provisioning [3]. |

Customer concentration: there is no single dominant client. The book is highly granular across millions of retail and SME accounts — typical of a Tier-1 Korean universal bank.

---

### Key "Suppliers" (Funding and Product Partners)

For a bank, the analog of "suppliers" is **funding providers** (those who supply the cash KB lends out) plus **product manufacturers** whose products KB distributes for fees.

| Supplier category | Role | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| **Retail / corporate depositors (core deposits)** | Primary funding source — low-cost liabilities | Management repeatedly cites "core deposit increase and repricing" as the structural lever that protected NIM during the 2024–25 rate-cut cycle [4]. Corporate transaction balances are explicitly targeted to grow the low-cost deposit pool [4]. |
| **Wholesale funding markets** | Bond / CP issuance, interbank funding | Historically a meaningful share of card-subsidiary funding (FX receivables, ABS, long-term CP); funding-cost management is an explicit KPI. |
| **Bank of Korea (BOK)** | Provides the policy rate (base for repricing) and standing liquidity facilities | Base-rate cuts in 2H 2024 forced NIM compression via loan repricing ahead of deposit repricing [1]. |
| **In-house manufacturing subsidiaries** (KB Insurance, KB Asset Management, KB Securities) | Manufacture the bancassurance, fund, and brokerage products distributed across the group | Drive the group's fee income — bancassurance commissions, fund/AUM disposal fees and brokerage fees [3]. |
| **Regulators (FSC / FSS)** | Set DSR, household-loan ceiling, capital rules | Effective "supplier" of operating licence; productive-finance directives shape the corporate-loan strategy [2]. |
| **Shareholders / equity capital** | Provide CET1 capital that backs RWA growth | Management explicitly manages RWA growth (1Q25 +0.7%, full-year target <4.5%) to preserve CET1 for buybacks/dividends [5]. |

KB does not disclose individual deposit-counterparty or wholesale-funding-counterparty concentrations — the funding base is highly diversified across Korean retail and corporate depositors plus broad domestic and offshore bond markets.

---

### Bottom line

- The "customer" question for KB is best answered by **business segment** rather than named clients: ~KRW 360tn+ split across Korean households, corporates, SMEs, plus brokerage / WM / card / insurance customers across the group's subsidiaries [1].
- The "supplier" question has no manufacturing analog — KB's economic inputs are **core deposits** (its key low-cost funding "supply" [4]), wholesale debt, BOK policy rate, regulatory framework, and the **internal product factories** (KB Insurance, KB AM, KB Securities) whose products it sells for fee income [3].
- If a specific dimension is wanted (e.g., named largest corporate borrowers, depositor concentration, technology vendors), KB does not disclose that publicly — bank confidentiality rules in Korea prevent disclosure of individual customer or counterparty names.

---

**Sources**
[1] Q3 2024 KB Financial Group Inc. — Earnings Call
[2] KB Financial Group, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call (23-April-2026)
[3] Q2 2025 KB Financial Group Inc. — Earnings Call
[4] Q1 2025 KB Financial Group Inc. — Earnings Call (NIM / core deposit commentary)
[5] Q1 2025 KB Financial Group Inc. — Earnings Call (IMA / securities segment commentary)

## Citations

- [1] **Q3 2024 KB Financial Group Inc.** · external
- [2] **KB Financial Group, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 23-April-2026 3** · external
- [3] **Q2 2025 KB Financial Group Inc.** · external
- [4] **Q1 2025 KB Financial Group Inc.** · external
- [5] **Q1 2025 KB Financial Group Inc.** · external

