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By Lee Kyung-min
Korean lenders enjoyed steady growth in their income from abroad in 2018 on the back of their continued efforts to expand their overseas presence.
The jump in earnings came as four major banks have strengthened their footholds in Southeast Asia to find new revenue sources and diversify their business portfolios amid the rapid saturation of the domestic market.
Shinhan Bank, the nation's top lender by net profit, recorded the largest overseas profit of 321 billion won ($284 million) in 2018, a 36.8 percent increase from a year earlier. This accounts for 10.15 percent of its total net income of 3.16 trillion won, and came as the bank's businesses in Vietnam and other Asian countries generated stable earnings.
Shinhan Bank Vietnam maintains its position as the largest foreign-invested financial firm there, beating out HSBC, one of the major U.K. banks.
The bank has 30 branches serving about 900,000 locals since it opened its first office in Ho Chi Minh City in 1993.
Its online app SOL with over 110,000 Vietnamese subscribers is becoming more popular following timely upgraded features including customized apps and secure login methods.
KEB Hana Bank recorded a net income of 285.5 billion won in its global operations in 2018, a 19.5 percent increase from a year earlier, making up 12.72 percent of its total 2.24 trillion won net profit.
The bank's profits would be far higher if dividends from overseas corporate bodies are included, a KEB Hana official said.
"We have yet to release our data on dividends, but our overseas performance was definitely higher than available information shows. We are continuing efforts to strengthen our overseas network by capitalizing on our well-established overseas channels based on foreign currency exchange operations," he said.
The bank aims to increase the portion of its overseas income to 40 percent by 2025, with the recent approval from the Mexican financial authorities to operate a corporate body there.
"We received the approval late January. We opened a liaison office in 2015 and obtained preliminary approval in 2017. We think it's possible to officially begin business there within 2019," the official said.
Woori's overseas net earnings reached 196.9 billion won last year, up 19.7 percent from a year earlier.
KB Kookmin recorded 60.5 billion won in net income in the same period.
While the amount is the smallest among the four banks, its year-on-year growth stood at a whopping 157.4 percent.
"It is true that we have the smallest business presence overseas, but we consider last year's performance an indicator that our company can expect only growth from now on, a vision shared by our CEO as well as the bank's workers," a KB official said.
KB Kookmin Bank CEO Hur Yin recently went on an eight-day trip to Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, India and Vietnam to speed up the lender's expansion in the promising ASEAN market.
