“The history of finance is the history of takeovers, so we have to go overseas to seek opportunities to take over a foreign bank in order to grow further,” said Chairman Lee Pal-seung of Woori Financial Group.

The chairman made the statement during a ceremony for 360 new employees of the group on Dec. 5 at the financial group’s headquarters in Seoul.

Lee said Woori Financial Group went through 18 mergers in its 113-year history, while JP Morgan Chase of the United States went through 200 mergers, and HSBC, which was just a bank in Hong Kong, took over Midland Bank in Britain to become the global bank it is today. Lee continued to say that Woori Financial, with its 400 trillion won in assets, the largest in Korea and 18th in Asia, only ranks 72nd in global terms.

There are 11 Korean banks listed among the 1,000 largest banks in the world, but countries like the Philippines and Malaysia have the same number as Korea, and Indonesia and the Philippines, with 13 each, have more banks on the list than Korea, he said.

Lee said that one must always do something to be a global financial concern, be it M&As or other things, and if you can’t do anything at home, you must look overseas.

He also said at a social service event titled,“One Mind, Sharing Stuffing Cabbage,” that next year’s economic conditions will be not better than this year and the group’s net profit will be down around 300 billion won from this year. But, he added, Woori will be able to take over the stakes in Woori Aviva Life Insurance held by Aviva Life of Britain this year.

In the meantime, Woori Financial Group has launched a task force to handle the spinoff of its credit card operation. The group expects some 1,500 officers and staff to go with the credit card unit when it is spun off by the group next month.

The group submitted an application for the license from the financial authorities to take the action on Nov. 9 and formed a 23-member task force, which will be increased to around 30 in the upcoming personnel shakeup of the group. They expect to get the preliminary license from the financial authorities in January next year. 

Chairman Lee has been pushing the move as one of his major strategies during his watch, but the financial authorities have been reluctant to approve the plan on the basis that the credit card market has been overcrowded with the launches of KB Card and Hana-SK Card this year.