Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Financial firms' overseas business faces setback
gettyimagesbank
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
The escalating coronavirus has put the brakes on financial groups' plans for overseas business this year. The postponement of key meetings is set to affect the firms' plans at a time when overseas business has become increasingly important against Korea's dropping growth and interest rates, as well as tighter regulations.
Shinhan Financial Group has put off overseas trips preparations for the opening of its startup accelerator program Shinhan Future's Lab in the European region.
The group denied that it had specific plans to travel to specific countries, but it had been considering France, the U.K. and Israel as candidate locations for the startup center since last year.
It appears visits to the locations for meetings will not be possible for the time being as Israel has banned the entry of travelers that have visited Korea in the last 14 days, and the U.K. has put in place restrictions. Over 100 countries have either banned or restricted travel from Korea.
Shinhan group said in December it would launch a project pouring 2.1 trillion into 2,000 competitive startups. Shinhan Future's Lab plays a key role in fostering businesses in Korea.
Shinhan Future's Lab also has presence in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Silicon Valley. The centers, which are located overseas, assist local startups to enter Korea and also help Korean entities enter foreign markets and collaborate with foreign counterparts.
Meanwhile, trips for meetings with existing and potential overseas investors have also been put on hold.
This has placed financial groups in a difficult position as their stock price has seen a steep fall in recent months. All four major groups have seen their stock price hit rock bottom in the past week.
The chiefs of financial groups usually make three to four trips to meet investors each year.
The banking groups' executives have also put off holding meetings with global investment banks, which were held as a means to learn about their business.
However, they have postponed such trips for the time being as foreign entities have refrained from holding physical meetings.
Goldman Sachs has halted non-essential foreign business travel to countries including Korea, China and Italy.
Banks may also see a setback in their plans for opening overseas outlets this year.
"Physical meetings with investors usually take place on the sideline of major conferences, but we are currently unable to do those," an official in charge of investor relations at a major group said.
"But physical meetings are substituted for non-face-to-face mediums such as phone calls."
He noted that the number of conference calls with investors has surged as the financial group faces soaring demand, based on investor concerns over the situation here.
An official of another major financial group said "We have been holding a lot more conference calls in the last two weeks, when the coronavirus situation here began escalating."
"The overseas meetings usually take place in May, but we will have to wait and see if we are able to go then."