By Kim Jae-won
Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tae said Wednesday that the nation’s second-largest financial group will cater to Asian immigrants in the U.S. as part of its global business strategy.
The 60-year-old lifelong banker said that the group will offer retail financial services for Asian-American individuals by employing employees from their home countries.
“We will broaden our business to reach all Asian immigrants in America to expand our markets,” said Kim during his first press meeting since he took the helm of the holding company last week.
Hana is expanding its presence in the U.S. to find new revenue sources in the world’s biggest market. It bought a controlling stake in Los Angeles-based financial holding company Saehan Bancorp last month, whose main customers are Korean immigrants in the city.
The group CEO said that the company is interested in acquiring another Korean-American lender in the U.S., but declined to elaborate further due to reasons of confidentiality.
Kim said that the group will accelerate its globalization plan with the aim to have 10 percent of assets and 20 percent of profit come from non-Korean markets by 2015.
In terms of the Chinese market, Kim said it is difficult to run businesses there due to government restrictions. He said that Chinese regulators did not approve the company’s plan to set up a credit card subsidiary, a key business of retail banking.
The chairman emphasized the importance of winning the hearts of employees of Korea Exchange Bank, which the group bought from U.S.-based Lone Star Funds in February.
“We should come to know each other. If we can understand and communicate with one another, we can overcome many problems.”
Kim defined himself as a reliever in a baseball game, who is supposed to complete what the company’s former group Chairman Kim Seung-yu had achieved. He said the Roman Empire could thrive thanks to the Appian Way, so Hana will run on the road, which the former leader made.
Kim Seung-yu is known as the founder of the group who made the company a leading player from a tiny money lender during the last four decades. The former chairman retired last week.
Kim Jung-tae said that he plans to diversify the group’s portfolio, especially the insurance business, for which the group has little presence in the market. Hana HSBC Life Insurance, which the company runs jointly with HSBC, has less than 1 percent of market share in the country.
Kim said the group is interest in mergers and acquisitions to have more influence in the insurance business, but said it has no plan to buy ING’s Asian life insurance arm as many other players are already interested in the company.
Kim is a lifelong banker who earned his stripes in retail banking. He headed Hana Bank for four years before taking the chairman post. Kim also led Hana Daetoo Securities, the group’s brokerage subsidiary for one-and-half years from November 2006 to February 2008.
shosta@koreatimes.co.kr