Good Deals
To accommodate the needs of the ever-increasing population of foreigners in South Korea, NH Bank has introduced foreigner-exclusive banking products.
The products can only be used by foreigners, and these foreigner-friendly products provide benefits like waivers of financial fees for Internet banking and ATM usage, a 60 percent discount for international money transfers, and 50 percent discounts on currency exchange fees, depending on a customer’s financial records.
To qualify to receive the benefits, the demand deposit should have at least 500,000 won (US$489) in monthly salary transfer, an average monthly deposit of at least 500,000 won (US$489), or a one-time foreign money transfer or currency exchange of over US$500 (510,750 won). Alternatively, the customer can designate NH Bank as their foreign exchange bank or have a deposit record in a foreigner-preferred term-deposit account.
The maximum period of the time-deposit account is three years, and a customer can deposit as little as 10,000 won (US$9.79) to as much as 10 million won (US$9,790) a month. After the three years are up, there is 2.6 percent annual interest, with extra interest of 0.5 percent, making it a maximum annual interest of 3.1 percent (before tax as of April 17).
This bank product is very convenient for foreigners who don’t plan to reside in South Korea permanently, because if the customer decides cancel the account after moving back to their homeland or to send money abroad, the basic yield gets applied, still giving some monetary benefit back.
This year, NH Financial Group acquired Woori Investment & Securities, Woori Aviva Life Insurance, and Woori FG Savings Bank. At a press conference on June 12, Yim Jong-yong, the Chairman and CEO of NH Financial Group, said, “With the acquisition of these companies, we have become the 4th largest financial holding company, and our position in the financial sector has changed.”
He also said, “By 2020, we will increase our total asset from 295 trillion won [US$288 billion] to 420 trillion won [US$411 billion] with a net income of 2 trillion won [US$1.9 billion] and synergy profit of 500 billion won [US$489 million].”
NH Financial Group is planning to expand its asset portfolio from non-banks to stabilize its finance. Currently, Shinhan Financial Group has 22 percent and KB Financial Group has only 9 percent o asset portfolios from non-banks. NH Financial Group is planning to increase its asset portfolio from 23 percent to 40 percent by 2020.
Woori Investment & Securities will be merged with NH Securities, and will be renamed NH Woori Investment & Securities. And it is planning to increase the total assets from 4.3 trillion won (US$4.2 billion) to 5.7 trillion won (US$5.6 billion) and net profit from 68.2 billion won (US$66.8 million) to 424 billion won (US$415 million) by 2020.
After value improvement and operation rationalization, Woori Aviva Life Insurance will merge with NH Life Insurance next year. The integrated life insurance company is going to have assets worth 75 trillion won (US$73.4 billion), increase its risk-based capital rate to first rate, and increase the percentage of its insurance rate to 30 percent. It will become a subsidiary of NH Financial Group with a new name, NH Savings Bank.