KEB Hana picked as best bank

KEB Hana Bank Foreign Exchange Division leader Kim Sun-kyu, right, poses with Joseph Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance, at the National Press Club in Washington, Sunday, after getting an award for being selected as Korea's best bank. / Courtesy of KEB Hana

By Kim Tae-gyu

KEB Hana Bank said Monday that it was picked as this year's best lender in Korea by Global Finance, the authoritative magazine on international finance and economics, at the National Press Club in Washington.

This is the second time that KEB Hana garnered the prestigious award after 2012. Last year, its local competitor Shinhan Bank topped the podium in the annual evaluation.

In particular, Global Finance praised KEB Hana's edge in such sectors as asset size, sustainable growth, fin-tech, market leadership and financial strength.

The Seoul-based lender is making efforts to sharpen its competitiveness in the fin-tech area, the crossover business between information technology and finance, one of the major projects for the Park Geun-hye administration.

Based on its advanced info-tech infrastructure such as cutting-edge networks in mobile broadband, the country has sought to find new business opportunities in the financial segment.

"We will continue to come up with differentiated services and products so as to offer convenience to our customers," said KEB Hana official Kim Sun-kyu, who took part in the prize awarding ceremony. He leads the bank's foreign exchange division.

With 135 overseas branches in 24 countries, KEB Hana has put its priorities not only on new business models including fin-tech but also on conventional banking segments such as risk management. As a consolidated entity of Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank, it is currently the country's top-tier bank.

Global Finance is a world-renowned finance magazine that has over 50,000 readers, mostly financial professionals including chief executives and entrepreneurs, in 163 countries.

The media outlet selects top banks in each Asian country every year on a variety of quantitative criteria including financial status, market share and service levels. Also qualitative factors are considered through interviews with analysts and surveys of financial experts.

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