Woori Bank holds the opening ceremony of the Small Business Support Center in Seoul on March 30. Woori Bank President Kwon Kwang-seok (fourth from left) and Gov. Yoon Seok-heon of Financial Supervisory Service (third from left) pose for a photo shoot with small business owners. (Photo: Woori Bank)

Woori Bank announced on April 13 that it has completed the establishment of the Automatic Clearing House System as the only foreign bank in Vietnam selected for a new financial settlement network project led by the central bank.

Woori Bank Vietnam was the only foreign bank among nine commercial banks selected to establish a joint network for a next-generation financial settlement system, according to the Vietnamese government’s policy of promoting the use of non-cash payment methods.

The newly established system has made it is easier for Woori Bank Vietnam to attract new customers as it enables customers to pay utility bills and credit card bills not only with Woori Bank Vietnam accounts but with accounts of other banks participating in the joint network.

“Woori Bank Vietnam’s participation in the local central bank project can greatly improve Woori Bank’s brand image,” a Woori Bank official said.

“We will continue to strengthen customized marketing such as securing new customers and launching new services in response to the local government’s policies.”

Meanwhile, Woori Bank Vietnam is enhancing its brand through SNS advertisements with popular Vietnamese TV celebrities and boosting its local sales competitiveness through 14 offline branches and the online Woori WON Banking Service in Vietnam.

Since the opening of the Hanoi Branch in 1997, Woori Bank has grown together with its customers over the past two decades. In January 2017, Woori Bank Vietnam was incorporated as an independent local subsidiary and continues to strive to provide the best financial services to Woori Bank customers.

“Woori Bank will contribute to the economic development of Vietnam and continue to focus on customer satisfaction by providing quick and convenient financial services for individuals as well as small and medium-sized merchants and enterprises in Vietnam,” a Woori Bank official said.

On April 9, Woori Bank announced that it has signed a strategic business agreement on digital innovation projects that combine finance and IT with Naver.

The signing ceremony was attended by key officials. In the ceremony both sides saw eye to eye on continuing mutual cooperation.

Under the agreement, they plan to develop and jointly market contents that link finance and platform services for the MZ generation, the expansion of the use of both Naver and Woori Bank authentication certificates, enhancing benefits for those who use Naver e-documents/certificate services, and the joint development of B2B2C which refers to business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions.

First of all, the two companies decided to jointly promote the Smart Campus Project for college students.

They will provide services such as simple online authentication and the collection of tuition fees through both Woori Bank and Naver authentication certificates for college students and faculty members and simple payment and simple remittance on campuses based on Woori Bank’s services and Naver electronic documents.

Meanwhile, Woori Bank announced on March 31 that it signed an MOU on big data model joint discovery business with the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC) to support self-employed people on March 30.

Under the agreement, Woori Bank and the KFTC will advance financial platforms and give support to business owners by analyzing self-employed people’s sales information and their commercial areas with financial information from Woori Bank and merchant information from the KFTC.

In addition, within the first half of this year, the KFTC will upgrade the VAN Big Data Service and provide the service free of charge to small business owners who use Woori Bank for a certain period.

VAN big data service provides general merchants such as small business owners with various forecasts and analysis information such as daily trends, settlements and sales management and frequent customers, weather analysis, among others.

“We hope that we will help small business owners by utilizing data-based analysis services via this agreement,” a Woori Bank official said.

“Woori Financial Group will also take the lead in promoting a data economy in line with the government's data economy promotion policies and Digital New Deal.”