Korean banks boost overseas workforce
By Lee Kyung-min Korea's top four commercial banks ― Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori and KEB Hana ― are strengthening their overseas workforces in Southeast Asian countries in a bid to solidify global business there amid fast saturation of the local market, industry officials said Thursday. The lenders have been trying to minimize the dispatch of Korean workers to their overseas branches to strengthen their localization strategies.They believe a more viable option is to hire local workers who have a better understanding of the culture as well as business environment including regulatory hurdles. The banks said local sales representatives can better devise marketing strategies that would best work with customers of the same nationality. Up to 90 percent of them are locals, with the remainder being Koreans.Korea's top four banks have over a combined 16,000 workers overseas as of September, up nearly 10 percent from a year earlier when it was 14,620.The September figure is an over 40 percent increase from two years earlier when the number was around 11,400 in 2017. Of the total, Woori Bank h
Dec 19, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
