Asia Accounts for 67%
South Korean financial companies are operating a total of 433 foreign branches in 43 countries across the world. The number of their overseas branches has surged amid their recent efforts to push into the markets of Southeast Asian countries, such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia,
According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, the number of South Korean financial companies' branches in Southeast Asia increased from 123 in 2015 to 144 in 2016, 157 in 2017, 164 in 2018 and 171 at the end of June 2019.
By industry, banks have the largest number of overseas branches at 192, accounting for 44.4 percent of the total, followed by investment banks at 118, or 27.3 percent, insurance companies at 75, or 17.1 percent, and specialized credit finance companies at 46, or 10.6 percent.
By country, Asia has the largest number at 291, taking up 67.2 percent, followed by Americas at 71 and Europe at 47. In Asia, there are 59 branches in China, 54 in Vietnam, 30 in Hong Kong, 23 in Indonesia, 22 in Myanmar and 32 in India.
By type, banks have 41.7 percent of their overseas stores in the form of branch, investment banks and specialized credit finance companies71.2 percent and 82.6 percent, respectively, in local subsidiary and insurance companies 52.7 percent in office.
As of the end of June, 32 financial companies were seeking to enter the markets of 18 countries and the number of cases reached 51. By country, the figure for Myanmar was 10, Vietnam 9, Indonesia 4 and India 4. In short, Southeast Asian countries were taking most of the cases at 34. By industry, banks had the largest number of cases at 25, followed by specialized credit finance companies at 11, investment banks at 9 and insurance companies at 6.