A group of  top officials of both NongHyup Bank and local Chinese 

officials cutting tapes at a ceremony to open the bank’s Beijing office 

on Sept. 11 in Beijing, China. (photo: NH Bank)

   NongHyup Bank opened its Beijing, China office on Sept. 11 in a ceremony attended by some 30 local dignitaries including the vice president of the China Youth Daily and Korean bank executives led by President Shin Choong-shik.

CEO Shin, in his congratulatory speech, promised that the Beijing office, which is the bank’s second one in Asia after the Hanoi, Vietnam office, which opened in March, will become a full branch as soon as possible to serve not only the Korean community in Beijing, but also local customers. 

The bank signed a comprehensive cooperative agreement (MOU) with the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the five largest banks in China, on Sept. 11 to expand trade transactions, cooperate in providing finances to their firms operating in each other’s country, provide support with consultations and finances to help liquidity when a company from the other’s country sets up operations, and to provide the best available services to each other.

NongHyup Bank also signed an agreement with the China Youth Daily to provide a weekly newsletter to Chinese firms operating in Korea and Korean firms in China for a year free of charge. The China Youth Daily has the second largest circulation after China People’s Daily in China as a representative Chinese newspaper.

NongHyup Bank now has two banking outlets in Asia, in China and Vietnam, two major operational bases in Asia, and plans to provide more intensive services to its customers. It also intends to work for the growth of the financial industry in both Korea and China, taking advantage of its special agreements with the Agricultural Bank of China and the China Youth Daily, officials of the bank said.

In the meantime, NongHyup Bank’s New York branch, its first overseas operation unit, started its operation on Aug. 15 and a Korean firm operating in the United States has become the first to open a deposit account at the branch.

The branch does a variety of banking businesses including the relay of money transfers, trade finance and provision of loans and guarantees to corporate customers and other operations, the bank said.

President Shin, in his letter to the staff of the New York branch, said the New York branch should be developed as a base for the bank’s global operations, as it is the first overseas operation unit for the bank. “We have been able to expand our banking services overseas, providing a better service to our customers both at home and abroad,” Shin said.

Housing loans have continued to be released by NongHyup Bank, although the reduction of the acquisition tax on houses was suspended from the end of June, the bank said.

The bank said total housing loans provided by the bank in July amounted to 117 billion won under the “First Housing Loan in Life” loans, with housing loans amounting to 411.9 billion won as of the end of July, exceeding the 400 billion won level since the bank set up the housing loan account.

The bank attributed the high accessibility of its 1,184 banking outlets around the country, the appropriate target for the special housing loan, and intensive marketing for the loan for the high amount of housing loans released.

The special housing loan account has been available to those whose combined annual income is below 70 million won for a married couple with dependents. The size of the house should be less than 85 sq. meters and priced less than 600 million won and it should be their first home purchase. They can borrow as much as 200 million won from the bank under the special housing loan account.