President Lee Dae-hoon visits Deputy Director of the Beijing Bank and Insurance Supervisory Office in Beijing on Aug. 19 to discuss NH Bank’s plan to turn its rep. office in Beijing into a full branch.

NH Bank will try to upgrade its representative office in Beijing to branch status early next year as part of its strategy for southeast Asia involving China and Vietnam as its global bridgeheads, in particular to speed up the plans for new businesses in the region.

The bank set up the current rep. office six years ago and will now turn it into a full branch to earnestly go after new business, which is the reason for President Lee Dae-hoon’s trip to Beijing.

President Lee will visit the China Bank and Insurance Supervisory Committee to submit the application for the permit to upgrade its current Beijing outlet to full branch status early next year. The bank plans to have the Beijing branch take on commercial banking and agricultural financing as soon as the branch is ready to conduct financial operations.

The bank intends to show off its agricultural financing as the strongest financial service in China, too, as it has in the domestic financial market in Korea.

The Beijing branch will be a key global operational base overseas, together with the Hanoi branch in Vietnam, as they will be the strategic center for its Southeast Asia operations. The bank plans to take advantage of its financial services for farm machinery, and farm food as new financial business model for the region.

NH Bank set up overseas operations later than other Korean banks and wants to catch up with them as fast it can, covering the 13 year head start other banks got when they launched overseas operations in 2000, compared to NH Bank’s 2013.

President Lee last year botched his strategy to push its overseas initiatives to earnest explore the global financial market.
The CEO said the bank no longer can ignore the overseas operation as far as its future growth is concerned. He began to take the overseas operation seriously, determining that domestic financial market is too crowded with no room for further growth.

NongHyup Bank opened its Beijing, China office on Sept. 11 in a ceremony attended by some 30 local dignitaries including the vice president of the China Youth Daily and Korean bank executives led by then President Shin Choong-shik.

President Lee Dae-hoon of NH Bank shakes hands with Stewart Aeres, New South Wales Minister for Jobs, Investment and Tourism in Australia on a visit to his office on Aug. 22. (Photos: NH Bank)

The bank signed a comprehensive cooperative agreement (MOU) with the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the five largest banks in China, on Sept. 11 to expand trade transactions, cooperate in providing finances to their firms operating in each other’s country, provide support with consultations and finances to help liquidity when a company from the other’s country sets up operations, and to provide the best available services to each other.

NongHyup Bank now has two banking outlets in Asia, in China and Vietnam, two major operational bases in Asia, and plans to provide more intensive services to its customers. It also intends to work for the growth of the financial industry in both Korea and China, taking advantage of its special agreements with the Agricultural Bank of China and the China Youth Daily, officials of the bank said.

In the meantime, NongHyup Bank’s New York branch, its first overseas operation unit, started its operation on Aug. 15 and a Korean firm operating in the United States has become the first to open a deposit account at the branch.

NongHyup Bank’s overseas expansion has gained momentum with the launch of its representative office in India on June 29, a spokesperson of the agricultural bank said.

The office is located in the nation’s capital, New Delhi. It marks the lender’s fourth overseas office, following New York, Beijing and Hanoi. NongHyup has been eyeing the growing Indian market since 2011 when it sent an employee to India to study the market.