Hana Financial Group Opens Senior AI & Digital Job Center in Jeonnam Gwangju Special City

Chairman Ham Young-joo of Hana Financial Group. (Photos: Hana Financial Group)

Hana Financial Group announced on Aug. 25 that it has opened the Gwangju Seo-gu AI & Digital Job Center in Seo-gu, Jeonnam Gwangju Special City to support the enhancement of AI and digital capabilities and re-employment for middle-aged and senior citizens.

The Gwangju Seo-gu AI & Digital Job Center was established as part of Hana Power on Second Life, Hana Financial Group’s re-employment support program for middle-aged and senior citizens.

As the third job center to open following those in Gangnam-gu, Seoul in 2024 and Sejong City in January, it provides comprehensive support ranging from education to job placement to help local middle-aged and senior citizens enhance their AI and digital capabilities and find decent new jobs.

In particular, the Jeonnam Gwangju Special City Job Center holds added significance as it was established by utilizing the former Nongseong 2 Dong Administrative Welfare Center, an underutilized space within the region.

Woo Seung-gu (fourth from left), vice president of Hana Bank’s Honam Sales Group poses for a photo with Kim Yi-kang (third from left), head of the Seo-gu District Office, Jeonnam-Gwangju with guests on Aug. 25.

Hana Financial Group supported the overall remodeling of the space, and Seo-gu, Jeonnam Gwangju Special City, provided the space free of charge, thereby laying the foundation for regional win-win job support through public-private cooperation.

The Job Center spanning two floors can accommodate up to 100 people simultaneously.

The first floor features two training rooms capable of accommodating up to 80 people and a lounge equipped with a media wall while the second floor is equipped with an AI practice room, a small-scale training room, and a dedicated counseling room for customized job counseling.

Along with existing platform and social job training courses, the Job Center operates AI and digital job training programs to support middle-aged and senior citizens’ entry into new employment including AI data labelers, AI content marketers and AI literacy instructors.

In addition, Hana Financial Group will continuously provide customized job counseling and matching services to ensure that the completion of training leads to actual employment.

This will be achieved by organically linking with nine job centers currently operating in Seo-gu, Jeonnam Gwangju and by utilizing networks with local social enterprises and village enterprises.

Acceleration of Digital Asset Custody Business

Hana Financial Group announced on Aug. 20 that BitGo Korea which the financial group established with global digital asset infrastructure company BitGo received approval for its virtual asset service provider (VASP) registration from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) on Aug. 18.

Through this approval, BitGo Korea has established an institutional foundation to actively pursue digital asset custody business targeting institutions and corporations in Korea.

Hana Financial Group has continued strategic collaborations with leading global giants to proactively respond to the trend of legalizing digital assets and the increasing participation of institutional investors in the market.

Following the signing of a strategic business agreement with BitGo for digital asset custody services in 2023, the financial group co-founded BitGo Korea in 2024 and participated in equity investment.

This approval of the registration is significant in that it laid the concrete business foundation for cooperation that Hana Financial Group and BitGo have pursued for the Korean digital asset custody market.

In particular, it is noteworthy that this is the first case in which a specialized global digital asset custody company has established a separate legal entity in Korea and received approval for a VASP registration since the implementation of the Virtual Asset Service Provider Registration System under the Specific Financial Information Act.

As convergence between digital assets and traditional finance such as virtual asset ETFs, security toss (STOs), real-world assets (RWA), and stablecoins accelerates, the importance of custody infrastructure capable of safely storing and managing digital assets for institutions and corporations is expected to become even more prominent.

Hana Financial Group will gradually expand its digital asset custody business which possesses the highest level of stability and reliability by combining the financial group’s asset management and risk management capabilities with BitGo’s global-level security technology and operational know-how.