KDB Brand Guidelines: Korea Development Bank Since 1954, a Möbius Symbol & KDB Gothic

A bank created to rebuild industry.

The Korea Development Bank was founded in Seoul in April 1954 under the Korea Development Bank Act, to finance and manage the large industrial projects of a country rebuilding after the Korean War. English Wikipedia describes it as a state-owned development bank, and the Korea Herald called it a “state-run policy lender” in August 2026. It signs itself KDB in Latin letters and 산업은행 in Korean, and its website pairs the two as “KDB 산업은행.”

English Wikipedia says KDB took over the viable operations of the former Chōsen Industrial Bank when it was set up. The sources used for this guide do not say how its predecessor operated during the years of Japanese rule, 1910–1945.

Its early work was reconstruction. In the 1950s, English Wikipedia says, the bank paid for the restoration of industrial plants damaged in the war, in basic industries such as electricity, coal and cement, and by the end of 1955 it accounted for more than 40 percent of all bank lending in South Korea. KDB’s own timeline adds that it began issuing won-denominated Industrial Finance Bonds in February 1955, took on share underwriting, bond guarantees and foreign-capital work in December 1961, became a foreign-exchange bank in March 1973 and began issuing foreign-currency bonds in October 1974.

Heavy industry, chips and restructuring.

KDB describes its history in eras. From the 1950s to the 1970s it calls its role development finance; in the 1980s and 1990s, long-term facility lending to make companies more competitive, with electronics and basic materials in the 1980s and semiconductors and telecoms in the 1990s. English Wikipedia gives a measure of that reach: the bank’s share of all equipment-investment lending in the country rose from 40.3 percent in 1972 to 49.6 percent in 1979, as it funded heavy and chemical industry under the government’s five-year plans.

The bank moved its head office to Gwancheol-dong in central Seoul in March 1985 and to Yeouido in Seoul in July 2001, its timeline says. It opened KDB Hong Kong in 1986 and KDB Ireland in 1997, launched KDB Europe in 2002 after buying Daewoo Bank in Hungary, and set up Uz KDB in Uzbekistan in 2006 by buying UzDaewoo Bank. Later came KDB Brazil in 2005, the purchase of RBS Uz in Uzbekistan in November 2011, which merged with Uz KDB in March 2013 to form KDB Uzbekistan, KDB Indonesia in 2020 and KDB Silicon Valley in 2021. In August 2011 it also began managing the Development Bank of Mongolia under contract, the timeline says.

At home, the bank says its focus from 2000 to 2008 widened into commercial and investment banking: support for information technology and venture companies, project finance and mergers and acquisitions. English Wikipedia lists three subsidiaries, KDB Capital, KDB Infra and KDB Investment.

Its structure changed twice in five years. In October 2009 the bank was split, with KDB Financial Group and the Korea Finance Corporation formed alongside it, during a period the bank says was spent pursuing privatisation; in December 2014 the three were merged back into one bank. KDB began offering personal loans in December 2010.

English Wikipedia calls KDB a major restructuring player that supported large companies through the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 crisis. One result was an insurer: KDB bought Kumho Life Insurance, renamed KDB Life, in 2010 during the restructuring of Kumho Asiana Group, the Korea Herald reported. After six earlier deals fell through, KDB named Korea Investment Holdings preferred bidder for a 99.75 percent stake in August 2026; that sale was not completed at the time of writing.

The bank also runs programmes for young companies. Its timeline lists the KDB NextRound investor platform from August 2016 and the first NextRise start-up fair in July 2019, and says it was accredited by the Green Climate Fund in December 2016. In December 2025 it set up an Advanced Strategic Industries Fund.

How Korean banks present themselves.

South Korean banks tend to present themselves with short names and simple symbols. Many trade under initials or a single word, and they usually show the Hangul name and the Latin name side by side, so that the same mark works on a branch sign in Seoul, an overseas office and a phone screen. Bright, clean colours are common across the sector, from yellows and warm tones to teals, blues and greens, set against plenty of white space.

Several banks have built their identities beyond a logo. KB Financial Group publishes its own typeface family and a cast of mascots, the Star Friends, which appear in its advertising; Hana Financial Group has its own typeface too, and offers it free to the public. Character mascots, house fonts and short slogans give these brands a friendly face that carries across advertising, apps and branches.

Much of the customer’s contact now happens on a phone. Bank websites and apps tend to be minimal and app-first, with pages organised around deposits and savings, loans, mobile banking, overseas transfers and digital wallets, and many services that once needed a branch visit are offered online. Banks also use their apps for things beyond banking, such as event ticketing or tie-ins with sports clubs.

Sport and publishing round out the picture. Korean banks sponsor athletes, teams and running and golf events, and some produce branded dramas and web series for online audiences. Their annual reports and sustainability reports are published in Korean and English and set out each group’s structure, history and identity, which makes them a useful starting point for anyone studying how these brands are built.

Two facing K forms and a free typeface.

KDB explains its symbol on its own corporate-identity page. It says the mark takes its motif from the Möbius strip, standing for the flexible flow a global bank needs, and uses two facing “K” letterforms to suggest smooth exchange. The two halves mirror each other but sit at different heights to convey movement, and the shape is drawn with volume, in three dimensions, to express what the bank calls open thinking and creative motion.

For its wordmark, the bank says it chose a modern typeface that does not feel heavy, to sound friendly and forward-looking. It publishes Korean and English logotypes and signature lock-ups, and a corporate typeface, KDB Gothic Pro, in regular, medium and bold weights. KDB says the font is free for anyone, individuals and companies alike, while the bank keeps the rights: users may not modify or resell it, must use it as distributed, and may not use it to build their own corporate or brand identities.

Where the bank sits may change. In August 2026 the Korea Times reported that a possible government plan to move state-run financial institutions out of Seoul, KDB among them, was being discussed, that unions at KDB and other policy lenders opposed it, and that no final list had been announced.

For a design guide, KDB shows how a state lender can turn a single letter into a symbol and give its house typeface away. Compare IBK, another Korean state-run lender, and Suhyup Bank. For this guide we use navy, mid-blue and a pale mist with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep KDB’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.