A group of officers and staff running the SME Global Consultation Center operated by the Korea 

Exchange Bank(KEB) raise their fists to swear to do their best to help SMEs on the occasion of the 

center receiving 100 consultation requests.

Korea Exchange Bank, as the only foreign exchange bank with a global operational network, has been managing a program to help out SMEs with foreign exchange problems by providing consultations taking advantage of its diverse experience in foreign exchange operations.

One of its vehicles for such activities has been the Global Consultation Center for SMEs, which opened in February to strengthen their operations, especially their overseas operations.

In order to strengthen the center’s service, the bank hired four retired veteran bankers and doubled its personnel since more than 80 percent of those who apply for consultations have been SMEs and most of them have know-how to avoid foreign exchange risks such as the methods for hedging. Assistant manager Huh Tae-seok of the KEB Foreign Exchange Department said around 70 percent of the applications for consultations are for foreign exchange.

President Yun Yong-ro of the Korea Exchange Bank.

For example, company A is a maker of plant automation control equipment with annual sales amounting to 130 billion won. The company usually is exposed to foreign exchange risks for around 60 days per year due to the time difference in receipt of its export proceeds and payment for its machinery exports with exposure of $5.71 million. The company was told to switch around 25 percent of the exposed amount to the future transactions of U.S. dollars and two month later the exchange rate rose by 14 won per U.S. dollar, saving the company some 19 million won. An outstanding operational feature of the center has been its ability to come up with the requested consultations in a week. The staff uses smartphones to know what’s going on in the center in real time so that they can act quickly on requested consultative matters. Any serious suggestions and problems included in the consultations requests will be reflected in commodities and services.

The KEB Consultation Center take charge of providing consultations over wide ranging matters such as globalization, overseas advancement of SMEs, overseas investment reports, education on taking care of those investments, laws, tax regulations, and the trends of the financial markets in foreign countries they are about to enter for operations, among others.

“The center has almost all the information on major countries for foreign investments in the world,” said Assistant Manager Noh Hye-jung, in charge of consultations on international trade at the center. She said gets very moved when she sees small-business people who are delighted with the consultations they get at the center, feeling as if all the problems they had were resolved.

She said they work hard to have KEB known as a bank that goes together with its customers in a true sense of the word, not just winning customers.

President Yun Yong-ro said, “We will expand our consultation service for SMEs and our support to them continuously as they are in fear of impacts on their financial conditions from the U.S. slowing down its QE policy, which might touch off a global financial crisis, especially in the emerging financial markets.”