November 29, 2024

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Hyundai Card CEO Kim Deok-hwan, who resigned on Sept. 9. (Hyundai Card)

Hyundai Card CEO Kim Deok-hwan has resigned as chief executive at one of the largest credit card issuers in South Korea just one year after he was appointed, regulatory filings showed Tuesday.

Kim officially stepped down on Friday with Hyundai Card citing “personal reasons” behind his resignation. No further elaboration was given. A local media outlet reported that Kim was recently “sued by his secretary."

Born in 1972, Kim was known as the youngest CEO in the Korea credit card industry after becoming nominated to lead the firm by Hyundai Card’s board members in April last year.

Kim entered Hyundai Capital, now the country’s leading auto financing company in 2011, before relocating to Hyundai Card in 2017.

Hyundai Card said it has yet to choose a candidate to replace Kim and plans to appoint a new CEO at the next shareholders meeting.

Kim is the fourth-highest earning CEO in the local credit card industry, raking in a total 614 million won ($446,000) including performance pay and bonuses for the first half of this year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service data in August.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)