South Korea’s banking system was hit hard in the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which exposed weak management and poor lending practices. Many of the country’s banks, pushed to the edge of insolvency, have since returned to financial health and international respectability. One of the bankers responsible for the sensational turnaround is Kim Jung Tae.

Kim, a stockbroker and deal maker for most of his career, started in banking, in 1998, as chief executive officer of South Korea’s Housing & Commercial Bank. Until the year before, H&CB had been South Korea’s state-owned provider of residential mortgages, a focus that enabled it to escape the worst effects of the country’s corporate-lending spree. Kim consolidated that strength while adopting Western management practices and leading the bank to profitability. Then, in November 2001, he secured a merger with Kookmin Bank, the market leader and H&CB’s major rival. The smoothly executed merger has created the giant of South Korean banking and accelerated consolidation in the sector. Kookmin Bank, the name assumed by the merged institution, has the largest market capitalization of any Asian bank outside China and Japan and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

As Kookmin’s CEO, Kim continues to rock...