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| KEB Hana Bank employees provide consulting services for foreign workers at a branch in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. About 300 workers from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia among others are offered a wide range of services from job consulting to health checkups at the outlet. / Courtesy of KEB Hana |
By Kim Jae-won
A Thai worker in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, was in trouble after his company went bankrupt a week ago. He had no idea how to find a new employer, but KEB Hana Bank connected him with consulting services at the state foreign workforce employment center.
The bank declined to offer the worker's full identification to protect customer information.
On Sunday, the lender offered tailored services for foreign workers including job consulting, pension services, employment insurance and financial services at its Ansan Central branch, in cooperation with related government and private agencies.
An Indonesian employee also dropped by the branch to ask about his insurance and pension payments as he is set to return to his home country after working here for four years.
Representatives from Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and the National Pension Service told him how much he would be paid and the process for claiming them. Foreign workers are obliged to buy employment insurance while working in Korea, and are refunded the insurance payments when they leave the country.
"We received much positive feedback from foreign workers," said Kim Sang-bong, a manager at the lender's foreign exchange business department, who was in charge of the event. "We plan to offer similar services in other cities, such as Daegu and Gimhae, where many foreign workers live."
Kim said that the wide range of services benefited about 300 foreign workers from neighboring Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia who visited the branch. He added that the bank provided shuttle buses from Ansan Station to the bank.
Ansan is home of some 60,000 foreign residents, one of the country's largest populations of non-Koreans. Most of them work at small factories in the industrial city, located some 50 kilometers southwest of Seoul.
KEB Hana said that it hosted the event as part of its strategy to reach out to foreign residents, offering them not only financial services but also solutions for other aspects of life. The bank plans to expand such services to marriage migrants.
Market watchers said they made note of KEB Hana's efforts to draw foreign workers, considering the country is entering an era of low growth and low interest. Analysts said that local lenders need to enforce their globalization strategies to find new revenue sources outside the country. They said that attracting foreign workers within the country may provide business experience and skills for their global operations.
KEB Hana is the nation's most globalized lender with a wide network covering 24 countries on five continents.
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