Obtains Approval for Taipei Branch
Hana Bank is putting a spur to its global expansion. In particular, the bank has started its digital banking service LINE Bank in Indonesia in partnership with Naver's Japanese subsidiary LINE.
Hana Bank recently obtained approval for its Taipei branch from Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission, a first for the Korean banking industry. The branch is currently making preparations to open early next year.
The planned establishment of the Taiwan branch is considered the fruit of Hana Financial Group's overseas expansion efforts under its Global 2540 strategy. The group is planning to expand the proportion of its global profit to 40 percent of its total profit by 2025.
As of the end of 2020, Hana Financial Group's global profit amounted to 537.4 billion won, or 20.4 percent of its total profit. The percentage stood at 19.2 percent in 2019 and surpassed 20 percent for the first time in 2020. In particular, Hana Bank logged a notable performance. The bank’ overseas subsidiaries posted 143.7 billion won in net profit in 2020, more than double (107 percent) the figure a year ago.
Hana Bank ran 126 overseas branches as of the end of March 2021, competing with Shinhan Bank (163) for global expansion leadership. The bank operates in a total of 24 countries, four more than Shinhan Bank. In particular, the bank had branches in the most diverse nations by making a foray into not only Southeast Asia but Europe (six countries including Britain, Germany and France) and Latin America (three countries including Brazil and Panama) among Korean commercial banks.
Hana Bank's net profit grew in 2020 thanks to a significant increase in profits from Chinese subsidiaries. Its Chinese subsidiary posted net profit of 84.5 billion won at the end of 2020, more than 11 times higher than a year ago. The expansion of bond sales due to falling market interest rates drove up the increase in its profits.