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KB Kookmin Bank focuses on regional roots, Shinhan Bank and NH Nonghyup Bank on artificial intelligence, and Hana Bank and Woori Bank on specialized expertise.

The recruitment strategies of South Korea's five major commercial banks for the second half of this year clearly reflect their respective business priorities and talent development models. The banks are visibly moving away from hiring generalists for flexible deployment, shifting instead toward cherry-picking talent equipped with capabilities tailored to their core operations.

Their approaches vary widely. While Hana Bank focused on boosting expertise in flagship divisions by segmenting job functions right from the hiring stage, Woori Bank is speeding up efforts to secure specialized professionals ready for immediate deployment in key businesses. Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup Bank have reorganized their recruitment procedures and segmented job roles, respectively, in line with the ongoing AI transformation. Kookmin Bank plans to expand regional talent recruitment to nurture sales professionals who can broaden touchpoints with regional clients.

According to the financial sector on the 15th, the five major banks—Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup—have launched open recruitment for second-half entry-level positions. Kookmin and Woori have closed document submissions and are screening applications, while Shinhan and Nonghyup accept applications through the 17th, followed by Hana until the 28th. In terms of hiring volume, Hana will recruit 230 staff and Shinhan 130, up by 60 and 30 positions, respectively, from last year. Kookmin will bring on 180 recruits, matching last year's figure. In contrast, Woori scaled back its intake by about 100 to double-digit figures. Nonghyup has only announced 120 level-5 positions so far, but stated that additional hiring is scheduled for the fourth quarter.

The most notable procedural change compared to last year took place at Hana Bank. For the second half of this year, Hana established the "HanAXpert" track to recruit specialized functional talent for the first time. While applicants were previously hired under a single umbrella termed "General Banking," they are now separated into specialized tracks covering investment banking, loan examination, risk management, pensions, trusts, wealth management, capital markets, and foreign exchange. Reflecting CEO Lee Ho-sung's consistent push to foster flagship businesses, the move aims to assign recruits to roles aligned with their academic background and skillset from day one, accelerating the cultivation of in-house experts in foreign exchange, retirement pensions, and wealth management.

Kookmin Bank directed its focus toward reinforcing its regional sales foundation. Under its plan, over 25% of general-track recruits will be local talent nurtured into sales experts dedicated to regional corporate and retail clients. Coupled with this year's ongoing initiative to deploy corporate finance specialists across provincial hubs, the recruitment drive is interpreted as a strategic step to cultivate regional professionals, broaden engagements with solid small and mid-sized enterprises, and bolster sales competitiveness.

Some lenders restructured their evaluation procedures to assess job competence. Shinhan Bank overhauled its interview stages for general banking positions, replacing the previous first- and second-round interviews with an integrated format encompassing in-depth interviews, group evaluations, and AI collaboration assessments. Aligned with CEO Jung Sang-hyuk's company-wide AI transformation policy, the bank aims to verify whether prospective bankers can harness AI tools to solve problems and collaborate from the very point of entry. A Shinhan Bank official explained, "The objective is to see whether candidates can leverage AI as a practical tool to solve problems and deliver better outcomes on the job."

Woori Bank keyed in on securing seasoned professionals for immediate deployment in core businesses. The bank introduced a dedicated "Specialized" recruitment track to bring aboard certified professionals in accounting, law, and taxation. Assigned to tasks such as legal contract reviews and corporate credit evaluations, these hires represent a move to swiftly bring in specialized external talent amid growing corporate finance demands, particularly in investment banking. Successful candidates in retail and corporate banking tracks will also be granted fast-track training opportunities to become relationship managers (RMs) or customer managers (CMs), expediting the cultivation of internal specialists.

NH Nonghyup Bank, which is accelerating its push toward becoming an "Agentic AI Bank," further segmented its IT and digital tracks. The bank divided what was previously bundled as "IT/Digital" into separate tracks for AI/digital and cybersecurity, recruiting specialists across subfields such as AI planning and operation, digital assets, and white-hat hacking. The strategy is designed to recruit talent capable of driving initiatives under CEO Kang Tae-young's AI roadmap while strengthening cybersecurity and capabilities in emerging fields like digital assets. An NH Nonghyup Bank official said, "We subdivided the job tracks because recruiting tailored talent with specialized skills is vital to sharpening our IT competitiveness," adding, "To secure top talent, we increased our level-5 hiring quota by 20 positions compared to last year."

                                                                                                        Han Sang-wook