Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
NongHyup Bank seeks to branch out to Australia, China in 2022
NongHyup Financial Group Chairman Son Byung-hwan speaks during the group's global strategic meeting held at the headquarters of the financial group in central Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of NongHyup Financial Group
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
NongHyup Bank plans to open six more overseas branches in 2022, in line with parent NongHyup Financial Group's strategic plan to bolster global businesses in the coming years.
In order to bolster its global investment banking business, NongHyup Bank aims to establish new branches in Sydney, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City and Noida, India next year. The bank launched two new branches earlier this year in Hong Kong and London.
The bank also plans to keep nurturing investment professionals with global expertise to strengthen its worldwide network. In addition, the bank will take necessary measures to acquire licenses required in each country to expand its global investment banking operation.
The plan was revealed during the financial group's online global strategic meeting held earlier this week, which brought together the CEOs and key officials of NongHyup Financial Group's subsidiaries, including the bank and its brokerage arm.
The financial group said that the online meeting was held mainly to prepare for the group's 10th anniversary next year, aiming to track back the footsteps of NongHyup Financial Group's past decade of global advancement and to map out fresh global strategies for the new decade.
During the meeting, the group chairman again urged the heads of the subsidiaries to achieve the group's mid-term goal of 160 billion won ($134 million) in annual net profit from overseas branches located in 13 different countries.
“It's heart-warming to see the group subsidiaries' efforts to strengthen and expand global networks, despite various negative exterior conditions,” Chairman Son said during the meeting.
“We once again urge all of our subsidiaries to pay particular attention so that our global business becomes the core strength of NongHyup Financial Group and the key source of momentum of the group's growth,” the chairman stressed.
NongHyup Financial Group set a global vision in February this year to become Asia's representative global financial cooperative. The group plans to build a 10-year strategy largely based on global expansion.
Currently, the financial group operates networks in nine countries, with the total amount of its overseas assets standing at 1.3 trillion won. The group's global business raked in 28.9 billion won in net profit last year.