Korea's NPS taps BNK Financial head for CIO role

Ahn previously worked for NPS between 2011 and 2013, latterly serving as head of domestic equities. He then entered the private sector, serving as CEO of Kyobo AXA Investment Managers – a joint venture between Kyobo Life and AXA Investment Managers – and then leading BNK Financial Group. Ahn has been appointed for a two-year term.

Ahn’s predecessor, Myun-Wook Kang, resigned in mid-2017, seven months before the end of his term. This came less than a fortnight after NPS revoked the appointment of Jae-Sang Kim as global head of alternatives due to a discrepancy on his resume.

In-Sik Cho, the pension fund’s former global publics market head, served as acting CIO but tendered his resignation in June. Soo-Cheol Lee, who leads investment strategy, became acting CIO the following month. Meanwhile, the search for a permanent replacement stuttered, reportedly after the initial process failed to deliver a suitable candidate.

NPS is the world’s third-largest pension fund with KRW643 trillion in assets as of June 2018, up from KRW558.3 trillion a year earlier. The alternatives allocation was 10.9%, or KRW69.8 trillion. This included global and domestic investment programs of KRW47 trillion and KRW22.5 trillion, respectively.

NPS has struggled to attract and retain talent ever since its head office was relocated to Jeonju, which is about 200 kilometers south of Seoul. This move was part of a broader effort to move certain government agencies out of the capital to less developed areas.

However, several industry participants note that Jeonju is just part of the pension fund’s staffing challenges. The prolonged search for a CIO has been influenced by politics as well, following the Democratic Party’s return to power last year.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• People
• LPs
• South Korea
• National Pension Service (Korea)
• Appointments