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Banks experiment with working space

Employees of Woori Bank's digital division hold a meeting in a room labeled “room where everyone has to say something.” This is a means to hear more from lower-level employees, who usually remain silent and listen to their superiors in Korea's hierarchical culture. / Courtesy of Woori BankBy Kim Bo-eunBanking is known to be among the most conservative sectors here, being hierarchical and slow to change. Yet some banks are taking drastic steps to innovate their organizational culture to adapt to the digital era. At KEB Hana Bank's headquarters in central Seoul, employees choose where to sit when they come to work each morning. They do not have their own desks. They cannot sit in the same spot for more than five days. A cloud-based system in the common area saves the documents employees have been working on so that they can open them wherever they sit the next day.Managers, who lost their offices, now sit with employees in the common area. Executives have managed to keep their offices, but employees can see exactly what they are doing, because the walls are now transparent.

Jul 3, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Banks experiment with working space

DB Insurance expanding presence abroad

DB Insurance CEO Kim Jeong-nam, left, shakes hands with Tan Holdings President Jerry Tan after signing a contract for DB to acquire shares of Tan Holding-owned Century Insurance Company subsidiaries, in Guam, June 26. Courtesy of DB InsuranceBy Kim Bo-eunDB Insurance has expanded its presence abroad by acquiring subsidiaries of Century Insurance Company (CIC) operating in Guam, Saipan and Papua New Guinea, the insurer said Tuesday.DB acquired 80 percent of the shares of CIC subsidiaries based in each region.CIC is owned by the Saipan-based Tan Holdings, a holdings company that operates affiliates in sectors including information technology, financial services, logistics services, retail and wholesale distributions.CIC ranks among the top insurers in Guam, Saipan and Papua New Guinea.DB has operated in Guam since it established a subsidiary there in 1984.It is aiming to become no. 1 in the Guam market, through integrating its subsidiary and CIC.Through the acquisition, DB also has hopes to improve opportunities in Papua New Guinea, which is rich in energy resources including petroleum

Jul 2, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
DB Insurance expanding presence abroad

Banks close down branches amid digitization

By Lee Kyung-min The number of bank branches in Korea has been on a steady decline due to an increase in non-face-to-face transactions amid digitization. According to latest data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the number of branches at the country's 18 commercial banks including the top five ― Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, KEB Hana and HongHyup ― has decreased by 13 percent to 6,771 in 2018 from 7,698 in 2012.The shutdown has come as a result of an increase in the number of customers switching to internet banking. Bank of Korea (BOK) Economic Statistics System data showed there were over 146 million subscribers to online banking services including over 137 million individual customers and 9.1 million corporate customers as of the end of 2018. The figures are nearly double from four years earlier, when there were 81 million individual customers and 5 million corporate customers. The number of subscribers far outweighs the total population of the country as people use services from multiple banks. “Many of our customers use the online platform to check balance and wi

Jul 2, 2019By Lee Kyung-min

Shinhan Card expanding business in Vietnam

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, fourth from left, poses with Shinhan Card CEO Lim Young-jin, fifth from left, and other Korean and Vietnamese officials, at Shinhan Vietnam Finance's launching ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Shinhan CardBy Kim Bo-eunShinhan Card is accelerating its business in Vietnam, holding a launching ceremony for Shinhan Vietnam Finance Company (SVFC), Tuesday. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and Shinhan Card CEO Lim Young-jin were present at the event in Ho Chi Minh City.SVFC is Shinhan Financial Group's global business division's first successful overseas M&A.In January 2018, Shinhan received approval from Vietnam's financial authority to acquire 100 percent of Prudential Vietnam Finance Company (PVFC). PVFC was the U.K.-based Prudential financial services group's Vietnam unit, the first foreign consumer finance firm in Vietnam established in 2006. It had $270 million in assets, posted net profits of $11 million and had 300,000 customers as of the end of 2017.Shinhan's expansion into Vietnam's consumer

Jul 2, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Shinhan Card expanding business in Vietnam

In digitized Korea, going cashless not an option

What the rise of the cashless society will mean for Korea and the world? GettyimagesbankThroughout history, a new invention or technological advance has often allowed people to carry less with them. For instance, the invention of coins helped reduce the burden of people carrying loads of goods they wished to trade.Just decades ago, it would have been considered unwise, or even unthinkable, for a person to carry a camera, a television set, a computer with Internet access and a navigation system at all the same time, all devices and functions that now come in one small device that often weighs less than a few hundred grams ― a smartphone.The small device is delivering seismic changes to all aspects of daily life, and it surely feeds through in almost all financial transactions and payment processes in South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, where people have the potential to live without any physical form of currency to build a "cashless" society.Indeed, beyond credit cards, the smartphone is accelerating the trend of living without any physical money in Asia's fourt

Jul 2, 2019
In digitized Korea, going cashless not an option

Korean Re Switzerland gets 'A' rating from S&P

By Kim Jae-kyoungS&P Global Ratings has assigned a long-term issuer credit and financial strength rating of “A” to the Korean Reinsurance Switzerland AG, the global ratings agency said, Monday.Korean Reinsurance Switzerland AG is a Swiss subsidiary of Korean Re, a reinsurance company based in Seoul.Korean Re logoThe agency said that the Swiss subsidiary's rating reflects its view that the company is integral for the group's strategy to expand its business in Europe. “We expect Korean Reinsurance Switzerland to receive strong support from the group in operations, underwriting, reinsurance, and risk management,” the agency said in a press release.“We view the Korean Reinsurance Switzerland as a core subsidiary of Korean Re,” it added.It said that the latest ratings on the Swiss unit are equalized with the group's credit profile.“As a wholly owned entity, Korean Reinsurance Switzerland benefits from Korean Re's established track record of operating in the European region with almost 20 years of history,” it said. “We do not regar

Jul 1, 2019By Kim Jae-kyoung
Korean Re Switzerland gets 'A' rating from S&P

Woori strengthening ties between subsidiaries

Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seungBy Jhoo Dong-chanWoori Financial Group will establish four different taskforces to strengthen ties between its subsidiaries' global, digital, wealth management (WM) and commercial investment bank (CIB) businesses, the group said Monday.Designating the four businesses as the group's future growth engines, the holding company said each taskforce will play a control tower role to maximize synergy between its subsidiaries.“Woori Financial Group expects these taskforces will set up a basic framework to stretch the group's business portfolio through cooperation between subsidiaries,” a Woori Financial Group official said.“Under the newly established taskforce system, the group expects to enhance each subsidiary's ties in global, digital WM and CIB business. This will also create new business opportunities while more properly meeting customers' demands.”Woori's WM taskforce will monitor and bridge each subsidiary's asset management business to enhance the group's competitiveness in the sector.Under Woori Financial Chairman

Jul 1, 2019By Jhoo Dong-chan
Woori strengthening ties between subsidiaries

Hana aims to be digital platform company

This is the second in a series of articles highlighting major financial groups' strategies for digital transformation. ― ED.By Lee Kyung-min Hana Financial Group has a clear objective that differentiates the holding company from its competitors: becoming a fully data-based entity to fundamentally transform itself from a traditional financial services provider to a digital platform company.Under the new vision created by Chairman Kim Jung-tai to reinvent the group as a digital information services provider, a group-wide effort is ongoing to help workers set new goals prioritizing a customer-oriented mindset and embracing new challenges through cooperation among subsidiaries. “We set new goals prioritizing customer-oriented mindset, challenge, cooperation, action and taking initiatives,” chairman Kim said during a ceremony to unveil the group's digital vision in November. “These values will be integrated into a new governance structure whereby separate departments are merged in an organic manner to help improve agility to become more flexible and faster in the rapidly

Jul 1, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
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