Bank of Korea appoints new CIO

South Korea’s central bank has named Lee Dong-Min, former head of investment strategy at Samsung Life, as chief investment officer of reserve management.

Lee will start in early March, replacing Eugene Kim, who became the Bank of Korea’s first CIO in 2012. Kim’s term will expire at the end of February.

Lee will oversee management of $360 billion of foreign reserves. The contract period for the position is for two years with an option of a year's extension. 

He reports to Chae Sun-Byoung, director general and head of reserve management. Chae took the position on April 2014 after Choo Heung-Sik left to become CIO of sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation, as reported.

Lee left Samsung Life in May 2014. He had held positions including head of alternative investments, overseas investments, investment strategy and currency management. He has also worked at Samsung Group and American Express.

Kim had also done stints at Samsung Life and Samsung Asset Management before he became CIO.

In recent years BoK has been diversifying its portfolio, moving beyond government bonds into corporate debt and equities.

And Choo told AsianInvestor in 2013 that the bank would not rule out investing in alternative assets at some point. He also pointed to the growing importance of emerging-market exposure, both from a currency-diversification perspective and in terms of returns relative to embedded risks.