...Viability Rating-Driven IDRs: The Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Kookmin Bank is driven by its Viability Rating (VR), which is underpinned by the bank's substantial domestic retail operation, strong capitalisation and sound loan quality. It also reflects the bank's modest liquidity and funding profile relative to the international peers and a challenging operating environment, marked by slow economic growth and low interest rates. Substantial Domestic-Retail Franchise: Kookmin's strong franchise and business model are mainly underpinned by its strength in the retail business, backed by a nationwide branch network that allows the bank to maintain significant market shares (over 20%) in Korea's retail banking. Kookmin and its parent KB Financial Group (KBFG) were designated as domestic systemically important financial institutions by the Korean regulator in December 2015. Strong Capitalisation: Fitch Ratings expects Kookmin's Fitch Core Capital ratio (end-1H16: 15.3%) to remain...
