EBN | Woori Card CEO Jeong Won-jae Finds the Winning Formula with ‘Card-ui-Jeongseok’

Woori Card CEO Jeong Won-jae is credited with 'carrying' a rise in performance by sharply boosting installment credit sales settlement, the core business of card companies. The protagonist behind the turnaround at Woori Card -- whose market standing in key sales areas such as new card sign-ups had been considered weak -- is the 'Card-ui-Jeongseok' series, whose development CEO Jeong personally took part in.

According to the industry on the 23rd, Woori Card is the only one of Korea's seven dedicated card companies whose cumulative installment credit sales handling amount for the first half of this year (January-June) posted a growth rate in the 20% range compared to the same period last year.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's Financial Statistics Information System, Woori Card's cumulative installment credit sales for this period reached 3.9656 trillion won, a sharp 21.36% increase from 3.2676 trillion won in the same period last year. This is roughly 10 percentage points higher than KB Kookmin Card, which recorded the second-highest growth rate (11.68%). Having posted the highest growth rate so far this year, the company is seen as having gained the momentum to attempt to 'overturn' its 6th-place ranking by cumulative amount among the seven companies.

Installment credit sales are considered a clear indicator of a card company's profitability, as they allow the company to earn installment fees as additional revenue on top of merchant card fees. There is no disagreement in the industry that the major factor behind the sharp rise in Woori Card's card settlement performance is 'Card-ui-Jeongseok,' launched in April this year.

The Card-ui-Jeongseok series surpassed 100,000 accounts within three weeks, then topped 1 million accounts in under five months. The card industry has typically regarded 500,000 accounts as the threshold for a hit product, but recently, as product lineups have diversified, cards that sell over 100,000 accounts after launch are increasingly also considered hits. By that measure, Card-ui-Jeongseok has achieved a 'mega trend' of 1 million cards. It has recently surpassed 1.4 million accounts, and the company expects to reach 2 million by year-end.

The company cited three main factors behind the Card-ui-Jeongseok series' commercial success: (1) industry-leading levels of point accumulation and discounts, (2) additional benefits for categories customers use frequently, and (3) a sophisticated card design that fuses art and finance by drawing on Korean beauty.

'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT' offers an industry-leading base point accumulation rate of 0.8% across all merchant categories, with unlimited accumulation once the previous month's spending reaches 300,000 won. Notably, among 10 special categories, everyday-life categories such as mobile carrier payments, public transit, and electric vehicle charging come with an additional 5% point accumulation benefit.

Alongside this, the company has continued to diversify its lineup with the discount-benefit card 'Card-ui-Jeongseok DISCOUNT,' the shopping-specialized card 'Card-ui-Jeongseok SHOPPING,' and subsequent corporate-use, online-only, and Lotte L.POINT-specialized cards, actively capturing potential customers across various segments.

The design, with its enhanced aesthetic appeal, also aligns with the recent consumer trend of emphasizing 'value consumption.' As the first in the industry to incorporate Korean beauty into card design, the company drew on the works of Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung. Special processing on the surface of the card plate creates the visual effect of the artwork being set in a frame, while a 'ㄱ'-shaped notch placed in the upper right corner improves usability by making the card easier to pull out of a wallet.

CEO Jeong's philosophy that "a card is its design, and form and formality determine substance" is fully reflected in the product. In particular, CEO Jeong, who took office in January this year, is a 'sales specialist' who joined the bank in 1977 and spent over 30 years on the front lines of sales, including as branch manager of Seocheonan Branch, Samseong-dong Branch, and head of the Chungcheong Regional Sales Headquarters. To strengthen sales capability, he ordered a product strategy focused on core services. The name 'Jeongseok' (meaning 'orthodoxy' or 'the classic standard') was also chosen with the intent of returning to basics so that customers could easily and conveniently enjoy the card's benefits.

Buoyed by its commercial success, further lineup expansion is also being anticipated. According to KIPRIS, the Korean Intellectual Property Office's patent information system, Woori Card was confirmed to have filed a total of 10 trademark applications as of the 29th of last month, including 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Foreign Currency Direct,' 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Premium,' and 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Cookie.' It remains uncertain whether these trademark filings will lead to actual product launches, but the possibility remains open.

A Woori Card official was guarded in comment, saying, "It's true that we initially considered launching products under those names, but at this point the products may not be released, and the matter is currently on hold."

Because credit card issuance outweighs debit card issuance for Card-ui-Jeongseok, a positive effect on boosting sales is also expected. Woori Card posted cumulative net income of 88.6 billion won for the first three quarters of this year, up 9% year-on-year. If this trend continues, the company is projected to achieve net income of 120 billion won this year -- the highest since Woori Card's spin-off in April 2013.

Yeo Yoon-gi, senior analyst at Korea Ratings, said, "Woori Card's steady increase in usage performance, driven by active recruitment of new members and use of Woori Bank's sales network, is leading to external growth," adding, "Both credit purchase performance and card loan performance are increasing, so its sales foundation is stable."

Written by — Reporter Kang Seung-hyeok