Hana Bank China Ltd has been considered the most successful overseas subsidiary not only at Hana Financial Group, but also inside the Korean financial industry due mostly to its outstanding localization characteristics, financial industry sources said recently under the brilliant leadership of Chairman Kim Jung-tae of the Hana Financial Group.

Chairman Kim has devoted himself to maximizing the synergetic effects of the financial group’s acquiring of KEB. In this regard, the group predicts that the consolidation of the IT systems of Hana Bank and KEB will save 150 billion in the next three years. 

Of 420 officers and staff working for the Hana Bank subsidiary, 391 are local people including its CEO and two of its three vice presidents, one of whom has been with the company for 17 years, showing the depth and breadth of the localization of the Korean bank’s subsidiary in China.

The expatriates working for the Chinese subsidiary had to resign from Hana Bank in Korea to work for the Chinese subsidiary, at which only Chinese is spoken.

 A former CEO of the Chinese subsidiary, recalls that he had to get up at five in the morning to study Chinese when he was assigned to Beijing.

Hana Bank has been benefitting from the tie-up with the Chinese regional bank from its banking operations in the nearby northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Shandong, and Heilungjiang.

Hana Bank has also been doing a good job in Indonesia as far as the localization of its operation is concerned. Its local subsidiary, PT Bank Hana, has 26 local branches already dealing mostly with local clients, as it does in China. Its branches focus on such areas as corporate and household loans, unlike most Korean banks operating overseas that deal mostly with Korean businesses and the Korean expatriate communities.

Hana Bank is ahead of its rival Korean banks in overseas operations due to its success in localizing its operations and Hana Financial Group’s takeover of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) has added 50 networks in 22 foreign countries. The financial group now has Hana and KEB under its wing, in addition to Hana Daetu Investment and Securities’ overseas network, bringing its overseas operations in 22 countries to 102 networks.

Hana Bank and KEB each has its own role to play in the group. Officials of Hana Bank said they are to focus on the retail operations in China and Indonesia while KEB will concentrate on trade financing and corporate finance, especially in the area of providing support to Korean firms’ overseas advancement.

Hana Financial Group has been working on its strategy to rank among the top 50 financial groups in the world by strengthening its overseas operations.

At the moment, Hana Bank is in the process of setting up a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and KEB has been working on launching a branch in Abu Dhabi and another branch in the Philippines, along with a liaison office in Myanmar. When all of the targets are accomplished, the group will have built a strong East Asian financial belt. Hana Bank will see its banking network extend from the three northeastern provinces in China, to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia, providing integrated financial services in the East Asian commercial sphere.

In addition, the group has recently signed an MOU to take over a majority stake in Broadway National Bank Financial Services Corp. (BNB) run by Korean-American business people as its base of operation in the United States.