Migrants help KEB in marketing

Four naturalized immigrants, hired for the retail market development division of the Korea Exchange Bank, have a meeting at their office in Jung-gu, Seoul. From left are Suresh Limbu, Choe Ahrip, Ajima Chaphu, and Liang Zhixi, who came from Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand and China, respectively. / Courtesy of KEB

By Park Jin-hai

A lean figure with a friendly smile and greetings. Then he excuses the absence of a member of the special corps of five that he belongs to at the bank.

Sitting around a meeting table, they talk about the sales figures with soft but confident voices. They are the first naturalized Korean bankers hired by the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB). They currently work in the retail market development division at the bank’s headquarter office in Jung-gu, Seoul.

In an age when the number of expats residing in Korea nears 1.5 million, businesses targeting them are booming. The financial industry is not an exception.

Many banks set up special kiosks called “Sunday bank” at the crowded streets of Ansan or Guro-gu and hire interpreters to attend to foreign customers who want to send money on holidays to their homelands.

The country’s top foreign exchange market also has jumped into the race. But, instead of hiring foreign immigrants as interpreters or bank tellers, it chose to incorporate them into the core of their workforce ― market development team.

“Many illegal immigrants falsely believe that because of their legal status, they cannot use banking service,” said Choe Ahrip, 37, a naturalized Bangladeshi who came to Korea as a student on government scholarships in 1999.

“They, too, with valid passports and ID cards, can open accounts and send money to their homelands,” Choe added.

He says that is one of the pervasive misconceptions that blocks foreign immigrants from remaining in the boundaries of the legal banking system. He and four others from China, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam work jointly to address those wrong perceptions.

Liang Zhixi, 33, from China, witnessed her friends fall victim to illegal brokers that open business at one point and flee at another.

“Many Chinese still think that the Korean banking system is complex. Mobile banking and electronic certificates are like a maze for them,” she said. So they go to illegal money exchangers as an alternative.

“I wish others could think differently. If the banking system is complex, it could also mean that it is more secure to protect customers’ money,” she added.

Suresh Limbu, 42, a manager of the retail market development team and former employee of the Nepalese Embassy to Seoul, says Nepalese don’t trust banks.

“It used to take a lot of time to transfer money, since money had to go through American banks first,” he said “That is not true anymore. Especially in Korea that has a top-notch electronic money transfer system.”

All these concerns have been directly incorporated into the company’s current business. One example is the revised easy-one system that enables direct money transfers to foreign accounts.

Under the previous system, each account opened here could only be connected to a single foreign account. Thus, if foreign workers want to send money to their parents, wives or brothers or sisters in their homeland, they had to carry different bankbooks.

The five suggested that it should be made simple and now with one check card, people can transfer money to any foreign account that has a previous history of money transfer.

They say the experience is rewarding itself. Instead of remaining in the receiving end of multicultural benefit packages, it proves that they can do something for the country they are residing in.

Also, since they are working at the headquarters of a bank, they say that it is better to help those in need of help. In most cases, they say immigrant bank tellers in regional offices can provide directions to customers at best. “Since we are at the central office, we can tend to their requests from A to Z until the matter is completely settled in our hands,” Choe said.

As the subject moves onto government policies on multiracial families, their voices begin to pitch up.

Liang says the current overstretched organizations and government offices engaged in related policies should be reduced to at most ten.

“Content is more important than package. If the relevant offices are streamlined, pieces of benefits handed out to multiracial homes would get considerably better,” she said.

Suresh agreed and added that he feels like those policies are run by the interests of a few organizations. He says that if the benefits go to where they should go, then in 20 or 30 years time, a productive multicultural society will arrive naturally.