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Banks to overhaul employee evaluation system

Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seungBy Lee Kyung-min Woori Bank and KEB Hana Bank have decided to overhaul their employee evaluation system to prioritize customer satisfaction over profit in a bid to avoid the recurrence of the mis-selling of high-risk products.The decision is a much-belated move to restore lost trust after the financial authorities concluded their mis-selling of a set of high-risk derivatives caused major investor losses. The product in question is a derivative-linked fund (DLF), which is structured to track the performance of underlying assets such as interest rates and government-issued bond yields. Their returns are determined by movements of those underlying assets. The two banks plan to revise employee evaluation criteria measured by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to give higher grades to those who help boost customer profit. This is a major change from the existing evaluation scheme, under which factors unrelated to banks' profit including service fee income had been largely dismissed. Major revision concerning KPI, a type of performance measuremen

Oct 7, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Banks to overhaul employee evaluation system

Citibank Korea's new office to speed up digitization

Citibank Korea CEO Park Jin-hei, third from right in the back row and Citibank Korea Executive Vice President Valentin Valderrabano, third from left in the same row, show their palms with other executives and employees at a hand-printing event celebrating the relocation of its consumer banking group to a new office to Young City, a corporate office building in Yeongdeungpo, southwestern Seoul, Oct. 7. Courtesy of Citibank KoreaBy Lee Kyung-min Citibank Korea has relocated its consumer banking group to a new office in south western Seoul, to accelerate digitization and improve workforce efficiency, it said Monday. The group occupies six floors from the eighth through 13th of the Young City south building in Yeongdeungpo, which have been decorated in accordance with the bank's new workplace strategy, Citi Works, designed to best meet workers' task-specific wants and needs. The strategy, based on the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), a virtualization technology that hosts a desktop operating system on a centralized server in a data center, is the first to be implemented in Korea, ac

Oct 7, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Citibank Korea's new office to speed up digitization

BC Card to launch QR payment service for Vietnamese visitors

BC Card CEO Lee Mun-whan, left, poses with LienVietPostBank Chairman Nguyen Dinh Thang after signing an agreement to form a partnership for a digital payment platform, at BC Card's headquarters on Eulji-ro, Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of BC CardBy Kim Bo-eunBC Card will launch a digital payment service for Vietnamese tourists in Korea, the card issuer said Monday.It joined hands with LienVietPostBank, Vietnam's largest bank in terms of number of branches, to launch a QR payment service here.Vietnamese visitors to Korea will be able to use the bank's app-based payment service Viviet at BC Card's QR payment affiliate stores. They include convenience store GS25, retailer Lotte Mart and the bubble tea franchise Gong Cha.This eliminates the need for the tourists to exchange currency. The service will be available within the first half of next year, according to BC Card.“Through cooperation with LienVietPostBank, customers visiting both countries will be able to experience a convenient digital payment system,” BC Card CEO Lee Mun-whan said.“We will make efforts to become th

Oct 7, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
BC Card to launch QR payment service for Vietnamese visitors

Brokerages close branches amid rising online trading

By Lee Kyung-min The number of brokerages' branches in Korea has continued to decline over the past few years amid an increase in online trading, data showed Sunday. Data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed the number of branches nationwide stood at 928 as of June in 2019, down 73 from the year before. This is the first time the number has fallen below 1,000. It peaked at 1,816 in 2012 and has since declined to around 1,100 in 2015. Mirae Asset Daewoo, which has 97 branches as of June, led the drop after shutting down nearly 40 percent, or 63 branches, over the past year.Besides the industry leader, KB Securities reduced its number to eight branches. Fewer branches means fewer new hires and more early retirees. Mirae Asset Daewoo had 4,244 workers as of June after letting 327 senior workers go early this year as part of a company-wide workforce reduction carried out in the form of “voluntary retirement.” Shinhan Investment Corp. in January accepted similar requests from those born before 1975. While specifics remain unclear, at least 30 have left. Following the

Oct 6, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Brokerages close branches amid rising online trading

ESG bond issuance jumps by 11 times in 3 years

By Kim Bo-eunThe issuance of ESG bonds here has surged this year, as a growing number of entities, ranging from state-run firms to banks, have joined the trend to invest in environmental and social initiatives.ESG bonds refer to fixed income investments aimed to finance corporate activities in the environment, social responsibility and the improvement of governance.Data show that the issuance of ESG bonds reached 12 trillion won as of Sept. 26, sharply up from the 5.04 trillion won in 2018 and 1.8 trillion won in 2016.Green bonds were mainly issued, but the percentage of social bonds has also grown.The issuers have diversified, from government entities to the private sector, including financial firms.The Export Import Bank of Korea became the first to issue a green bond in 2013.In the past years, financial holding companies and banks were mainly involved in issuing ESG bonds, but credit card companies recently joined the initiative.Hyundai Card issued won-denominated green bonds worth 240 billion won last month, to provide financial services for environmentally friendly vehicles, inc

Oct 4, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
ESG bond issuance jumps by 11 times in 3 years

Woori seeks to boost non-banking via Lotte Card acquisition

Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seungBy Lee Kyung-min Woori Financial Group is expected to boost its credit card operations after acquiring Lotte Card in a consortium with MBK Partners, according to industry officials, Thursday.The Financial Services Commission said the consortium was eligible to push forward with the deal, allowing MBK Partners to hold a 60 percent stake in Lotte Card and Woori Bank 20 percent. With the possibility of Woori Bank securing a controlling stake in Lotte after buying shares from the private equity fund, this is a step closer to achieving the corporate initiative to strengthen its non-banking business outlined by group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung last year. He said at the bank's shareholders' meeting in December that he would push for mergers and acquisitions as part of efforts to better compete with four other financial groups. The aggressive push was to boost the performance after Woori Bank returned to its holding company status in January, a mission accomplished under his leadership about four years after it abandoned it. To land more customers, W

Oct 3, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Woori seeks to boost non-banking via Lotte Card acquisition

KB, IBK compete for banking license in Myanmar

KB Kookmin Bank CEO Hur YinBy Jhoo Dong-chanKB Kookmin Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) want to enter the Myanmar banking market, officials from each bank said Thursday.In line with the Moon Jae-in administration's New Southern Policy, they have already entered the Vietnamese market to overcome the saturated domestic market. And Myanmar is becoming their next target, reflecting the country's rapid economic growth.Shinhan Bank received approval from Myanmar's financial authorities for its banking operation there in 2016. KB and the IBK have offices in the country, but have yet to win approval to operate banks.The Myanmar government has granted two approvals and announced recently it would grant another banking license by the end of the year.Of Korea's commercial banks, KB Kookmin has been the most active to win the license.KB Kookmin Bank CEO Hur Yin visited the country with President Moon Jae-in last month. During his trip, a KB Kookmin Bank official said Hur showed the biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi written in Korean. “We are doing our best to le

Oct 3, 2019By Jhoo Dong-chan
KB, IBK compete for banking license in Myanmar

3 brokerages vie for opportunities in Asiana bid

Asiana Airlines' A350 aircraft / Korea Times fileBy Kim Bo-eunThree brokerages are seeking to take over the ailing Asiana Airlines in a deal that is worth over 1 trillion won ($830 million).Currently, among four contenders in the preliminary bidding, a consortium between Hyundai Development Company and Mirae Asset Daewoo is considered the strongest. Mirae Asset Daewoo, the country's largest brokerage, is joining as a financial investor.This refers to an investor who makes investment decisions based on financial returns with no interest in taking over the managerial rights of the invested company.Aekyung Group, which operates the country's largest budget carrier Jeju Air, is another contender in the preliminary round.Samsung Securities, which is advising Aekyung in its bid, is set to provide financing if the group wins. However, it has no interest in putting its own money up for the takeover, according to industry sources. They said that Aekyung is seeking a private equity firm as an investment partner.KB Securities is known to be advising the private equity fund KCGI, which has forme

Oct 2, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
3 brokerages vie for opportunities in Asiana bid
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