Chairman Kim Jung-tai of Hana Financial Group.(photo: HFG)

    The Hana Financial Group has been further stepping up its reach around the world in an effort to rank among the top 50 global financial firms by 2015, the group said recently.

Right now, the financial group has been working to build its financial network in Asia, linking China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines, and in 2015, the financial group will jump over the Asian boundary and expand its financial operations in other regions including the United States and Europe.

Hana’s global operations can divided into four regions, which are the Chinese sphere, the Southeast Asian sphere, the North American sphere, and the European sphere, with the group aiming to expand the overseas share of its assets to 10 percent and earnings to 15 percent of the total by 2015.

The key word for the group’s overseas operation is localization. It has been pushing the strategy hard in such countries as China, Indonesia, and Canada. The two key affiliates of the group, Hana and the Korea Exchange Bank, have been closely cooperating to advance their operations in China. Hana Bank has its head office for its China operations in Beijing, while KEB’s operation is centered in Tianjin where large Korean communities and firms are located. The two banks have been trying to provide financial services to the Korean residents and businesses as well as local clients in those cities and their vicinities, which have so far been very successful.

Hana Bank has also been busy expanding its financial activities in cooperation with Jilin Bank in Jilin, in northeastern China, in which the Korean bank recently acquired a stake, taking advantage of the local bank’s financial network in the region and developing products suitable to local customers jointly with Jilin Bank. The two banks also plan to cooperate in their overseas operations, especially in North America where there are large Chinese communities.

PT Bank Hana, a wholly-owned subsidiary in Indonesia, has been operating both retail and corporate banking, while PT KEB Indonesia has been focused on Korean firms operating in Indonesia with its 37 banking outlets in the Southeast Asian country. 

In Canada, KEB has been going after Korean communities and Chinese communities in cooperation with Jilin Bank, offering a variety of financial services and new financial products tailor-made for the local customers.

The two banks have been doing well in the United States, too, providing financial services such as remittance to Korean firms and individuals. The group signed an agreement to take over BNB Bank in New York and is awaiting approval from the local financial authority.

Officials of the group said Hana Bank will transfer its diverse banking know-how to the acquired bank in New York, especially in the area of retail banking staffed with local employees under professional financial managers to deepen its localization.

The group will maintain its strategies in Southeast Asia and China designed to expand its operations in those regions. The group is also eyeing its advancement into Central and South America and countries in Southeast Asia. Synergy is created through cooperation among the global networks, especially among the securities affiliates and overseas network. 

Hana Bank China notified Hana Investment and Securities when they got the information that Korean firms operating in China were planning to issue bonds in the local bond market. Hana Investment and Securities handled the issuance of 11 billion yuan worth of bonds, or 203.2 billion won, as of the end of May 2012. Synergy has also been created between local banking subsidiaries and the bank head office in Korea in the area of project financing. The Hana Bank subsidiary got hold of information on a real estate development project in Heilungjiang Province in northeastern China and notified the head office in Seoul and was able to consummate the deal with funding from Seoul.

The group will continue to encourage the creation of more synergy among its overseas subsidiaries and the head offices of Hana Bank and Hana Investment and Securities in Seoul in the days ahead.