Wealth Management Sales Grow
Despite COVID-19, the commission income of Standard Chartered Korea and Citibank Korea increased by more than 30 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year. Some are criticizing that their emergency financial assistance for COVID-19-stricken small businesses was inadequate in that period.
Standard Chartered Korea’s commission income totaled 77,335 million won with a year-on-year increase of 30 percent. Citibank Korea’s increased 38 percent to 50,471 million won. According to the two banks, this is mainly because their wealth management sales increased. “Our commission income increased along with insurance and investment product sales,” Citibank Korea explained.
At present, it is increasingly pointed out that the two banks are sparing themselves when it comes to the emergency financial assistance. One typical example is their interest subsidy loans for COVID-19-stricken small businesses. The banks showed a very slow progress in providing the loans and the financial authorities reallocated their interest subsidy, five billion won, to five other banks.