NongHyup Bank (NH Bank) on June 29 held an opening ceremony in New Delhi, India on attended by some 60 people, including the President of International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) Asia-Pacific and the Korean Minister to India.
NH Bank, which first dispatched resident employees to New Delhi in 2011, established a plan to open its office in 2014 and obtain business certificates from local and Korean authorities. It opened the office within the first half of 2015. In addition, the major Korean bank signed a comprehensive business agreement for financial cooperation with Axis Bank, specializing in corporate financing. It’s the fourth largest private sector bank in India.
NH Bank, which is already operates in New York, Beijing and Hanoi, has been on the fast track to build an Asian financing belt by opening an office at New Delhi, which can serve as a platform for its entry into Southwest Asia.
At the opening ceremony, Lim Jeong-soo, manager of future strategy division of the bank, said, “We will push to level up the current office to a branch as soon as possible to provide a wide range of financing services for Korean companies and residents in India, and will make aggressive efforts to transfer Korean knowledge on agricultural finance and enhance common benefits of the two countries by taking advantage of our strength.”
The bank has been pushing its global strategy in the past several years to seek new earnings sources by dispatching officers to overseas outlets, set up rep. offices, and open branches as well as local subsidiaries to achieve its targets.
The bank plans to open more branches in strategic financial centers around the world.
The bank at the same time has been trying to sign joint-venture agreements with similar banks in foreign countries, as such agreements can cut the time for its overseas advancement and also help its overseas operations.
The bank also plans to submit an application to set up an internet bank in China from financial authorities this month, jointly with a local bank. The bank will hold a 51 percent stake in the new bank, while its Chinese partner will hold a 49 percent share.
The new bank will have the letters NH in its name.
NH Financial Group, which has a number of affiliates including NH Bank, agreed with Mandara Bank in Indonesia to cooperate with each other to develop agricultural financing in Indonesia through various joint projects, including via banks, insurance, installment financing, and consumer financing, among others, to develop the agricultural regions of the Southeastern Asian country.
NH Bank has been able to sign tie-up agreements with banks overseas because of the reputation that it played an important role in the development of the agricultural sector in Korea by financing some of the key farm projects.
The bank has many branches in the farm and fishery regions in Korea and financial know-how to help the growth of those regions in Korea.
Financial institutions in Asian countries that have large agricultural sectors want to provide financing to respective projects. They want to set up joint ventures with NH Bank to learn how to finance agricultural and fishery projects.
Officials of the bank acknowledged that NH Bank has a high reputation among foreign banks in countries with large agricultural sectors in Asia.
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