Kookmin Bank started selling phone plans — its own union fought Liiv M

Liiv M is KB Kookmin Bank's budget mobile-carrier service built with LG Uplus — a hybrid of phone plans and mobile banking, with plan discounts scaling with how many KB banking products the customer holds.

That a bank can sell cheap 5G phone plans to teens and seniors, then convert telecom data and bundling into banking customers and products.

Launched 28 October 2019 at a launch event with KB chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, bank CEO Hur Yin and LG Uplus' CEO; regulators recognised it as an innovative service, exempting it from various regulations for two years.

Progress slowed under hardline union opposition. When the bank let customers sign up at branches — to reach seniors who struggle online — the union called it a scheme that turned tellers into 'salespeople for mobile phones'; including Liiv M sales in employee assessments escalated the conflict, and the union asked ruling-party lawmakers and financial authorities to cancel the innovative-service designation.

As of September 2020, Liiv M had about 80,000 subscribers against its 300,000-to-1-million goal, its regulatory privilege was under threat, and other lenders were watching the conflict as the template for what happens when bank staff resist new initiatives.

The distribution choice backfired internally: branch sign-ups meant the new business ran on tellers whose performance pay it now threatened.

The union's escalation path — lawmakers and regulators, not just management — put the service's innovative-designation privilege at risk.

The mobile-first logic contradicted itself: a product aimed at seniors needed branches, the channel with the fewest future customers.

Peer banks (Hana-SK Telecom's Finnq, Woori-KT) were watching, making KB the test case for whether bank staff block cross-industry bets.

A cross-industry bet can be vetoed from inside: if the new business runs on the old business's staff, their incentives — not the market — decide whether it scales.

As of September 2020, Liiv M stood at 80,000 subscribers against a 300,000–1,000,000 goal, with the bank insisting separately hired branch staff would relieve tellers and the union still pressing regulators to revoke the designation; Hana Financial's Finnq and Woori-KT's parallel telecom alliance hung on the same precedent.