Integration of Hana, KEB

 

Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank are expected to unite soon.

Shin Jae-yoon, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said to the National Assembly on Jan. 12, “We have waited for labor and management agreements between Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank for six months. We can no longer afford to wait. It’s a shame that no progress is being made with the settlement yet.”

Shin added, “I think we have given enough time. We will handle the issue following the law and principles.” Regarding the question of whether there is a possibility to deal with the issue when banks submit an application form for integration without the settlement between the union and the management, he said, “We can’t rule out the possibility.”

The labor unions of Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank have made a verbal agreement to form a negotiation body for early integration in November last year. However, as the labor union of Korea Exchange Bank demanded the change of 2,000 unlimited contract workers to full-timers and higher wages for them accordingly, the negotiations did not proceed.

Meanwhile, once Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank are united, Korea’s biggest commercial bank with total assets of 334 trillion won (US$307.98 billion) will be born.

The number of branch offices will increase to 952. Since inefficiency of opening several offices will disappear, the bank is expected to cut costs of 269.2 billion won (US$248.22 million) annually.

In particular, Hana Bank has unrivaled competitiveness in the private banking sector, while Korea Exchange Bank has unequaled competitiveness in the foreign exchange sector. Therefore, it is expected to create a huge synergy effect.

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