By Park Jin-hai
The Seoul Central District Court ruled Friday that Hana Financial Group could go ahead with its plan to merge Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).
The ruling came after Hana Financial filed an appeal in March against a previous court ruling that ordered a suspension of merger moves between two banking units of the financial group.
Its union accused the group of violating a promise not to seek the merger until 2017.
In February, the court issued an injunction stopping the merger, which was effective for the first half of the year.
The banking group will soon file a request with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for its approval of the merger.
Hana Financial argued that its early merger decision was made to preempt a possible financial crisis.
It bought KEB in February 2012 from U.S. buyout firm Lone Star Funds, but agreed with the KEB union to keep the lender independent for five years.
Hana has sought an early merger to raise the banks’ efficiency. The KEB union adamantly opposed the move and accused the financial group of breaking its promise.