Woori Bank was the first financial institution in the country to introduce a mobile banking service that allowed users to apply for and receive loans completely through an app. The loans offered through Woori’s WiBee Bank app had so mid-range interest rates aimed at small businesses. Since launching it last May, the bank has lent out 120 billion won ($105.75 million) through the app.
President Lee Kwang-koo of Woori Bank with its WiBee mobile platform has been able to secure its lead as a digital bank introducing the nation’s first mobile bank service, WiBee Bank, and in a first in Korea’s banking industry launch the WiBee Platform, including WiBee Talks, WiBee Messenger, an open market shopping mall WiBee Market, about a year since the launch of the WiBee Platform. The bank has also been able to achieve a lot in the way of expanding the WiBee Bank by attracting around 3 million customers for each of its WiBee business lines by using Fintech lines for WiBee Talks and WiBee Members.
Woori Bank has been operating transaction offices in two major cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. With the official establishment of the subsidiary, Woori Bank will boost the retail business with an aim of becoming the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnam market. According to the plan, Woori Bank will expand its sales network in Vietnam by establishing transaction offices in Bac Ninh, Haiphong in the north and Dong Nai, Binh Duong in the south by the end of this year. In the next years, Woori Bank will open up to seven more transaction offices annually to expand its network to 20 branches across the country.
Lee plans to go on a foreign tour to seek buyers for the Korea Deposit Insurance's 21 percent stake in Woori Bank. The bank said he will visit Europe and the U.S. in the first half of the year to hold investor relations events for the sale of the government stake to further privatize the bank. He did the same thing last year, which helped the sale of a stake held by the KDIC. He would like to continue with the effort to completely privatize the bank’s management as early as possible.
Woori Bank has been leading the digitalized operations by providing real-time translation services, introducing new segregated services to its customers. The bank introduced such segregated financial services including WiBee Cam, WiBee Partners, real-time translation services to its customers before its rival banks, leading the financial industry’s digital reform.
President Lee is the first CEO to be named as the top manager of the bank among those who started their career as a clerk there. He believes that an enterprise with a strong platform can lead the market, and he plans to have WiBee Talk allow customers to hold talks in a bid to make the platform accessible for finance personnel. WiBee Talk also aims to win points as a life and finance platform, taking roots in the bank’s financial facilities.
WiBee Fintech lab provides a variety of support projects for settled enterprises in the first phase, including 100 flat office, IT training, patent legal advice, IT system, investors contact etc. In addition, they can participate in an overseas project organized by Woori Bank and two British business incubators. Woori Bank plan to help one or two enterprises enter the overseas market through this project every year, and continuing to expand their scale.
On the day of the opening ceremony, Woori Bank signed a business cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency. Allplan to explore and cultivate potential one-man start-up companies, provide a financial discount, and strengthen cooperation consulting support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In an environment where the boundaries between finance and IT are breaking down, Woori Bank is actively promoting fintech to be its next major driver of growth. In May 2015, the bank launched South Korea’s first ever mobile-only banking service, known as WiBee Bank, later adding a mobile messenger service, WiBee Talk. It also released an online open market service called WiBee Market to establish a comprehensive mobile platform. At the time of release, these services were all unprecedented in the Korean financial industry.
The WiBee platform offers a wide variety of services. For instance, customers can use their smartphone apps to sign up for mobile-only deposits with preferential rates and loans, use the simple payment system service, and apply for travel insurance. They can also use WiBee Talk for convenient money transfers. Furthermore, Woori Bank has been a driving force in taking initiatives across the fintech industry. It was the first bank to implement payment and ATM withdrawals using Samsung Pay, and also introduced an iris recognition system for mobile banking.
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