PHL, ASEAN ENVOYS GATHER IN RARE MEETING WITH KOREAN BANK CEOS

By: Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, Seoul

Yim Jong-yong, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and until his appointment in March 2015 the Chairman & CEO of NongHyup Financial Group, welcomed Ambassador Hernandez, seven other ambassadors and two senior embassy officials from the 10-member ASEAN Committee in Seoul (ACS) at a dinner at the Bankers Club in central Seoul.

Singapore Ambassador Yip Wei Kiat, current head of the rotating ACS chairmanship, expressed hopes that the gathering, hosted by the FSC, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Korean Federation of Banks (KFB), would serve as a good beginning in a long relationship with Korea's banks, especially at the start of the process toward an ASEAN Economic Community.

The FSS is South Korea's integrated financial regulator that examines and supervises financial institutions under the broad oversight of the FSC, the government regulatory authority staffed by civil servants. Apart from the chiefs of FSC, FSS and KFB, the heads of a total of 13 member banks of the KFB were present.

Indonesian Ambassador John Aristianto Prasetio as ASEAN coordinator for relations with Korea and KFB Chairman Ha Yung Ku, who until his assumption last year was the Chairman and CEO of Citibank Korea Inc., delivered the toasts before the dinner catered by Chosun Hotel.

Ambassador Hernandez was seated next to the presidents and CEOs of two Korean banks that are keen to do business with the Philippines: Lee Kwang-goo of Woori Bank, and Cho Yong-byoung of Shinhan Bank.

Shinhan Bank, Korea's first bank, will become the second Korean bank to open in the Philippines next month. Shinhan's Manila branch intends to provide various financial services to both Korean and local corporations and the Korean community in the Philippines. As part of the Shinhan Financial Group, it has an established presence in at least 15 countries.

The state-owned Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) will open its first branch in November this year to cater especially to SMEs in the Philippines. IBK, South Korea's fourth-largest bank by assets, was represented at the dinner by Chairperson and CEO Kwon Seon-joo, who became in 2013 the first woman to head a bank in South Korea in 2013.

Woori Bank, which under the Woori Financial Group is the largest bank in South Korea, established a representative office in Manila in the past year in conduct a study of the Philippines financial sector and perhaps entering the market, possibly as the fourth Korean bank there.

The Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), Korea's fifth biggest in terms of assets and dominates 40 percent of Korea's foreign exchange market, became the first Korean lender operating in the Philippines after setting up its office in Manila in December 1981. It opened its second branch in the Clark Freeport Zone in September 2013 to enhance its sales network in the region.