Building Competitiveness
on a Global Level
- Woori Bank expanding financial services

Woori Bank's mid-to long-term goal is to go beyond being Korea's number one bank to become a world-class financial solution provider. In order to achieve this status, the bank is concentrating its strength on developing personnel, products, systems, and quality of service at the same level of advanced banks.
The bank's roadmap to achieving its goals shows that its first step is to groom professional staff and strengthened combined financial service. Building competitiveness on a global level with professional staff through establishment of a system with attention to the results of declining competitiveness vis-vis advanced banks.
Promotion of a system that provides customers with top-level products and service through a structure that combines professional staff with bank securities, trust investment and credit card products.
In the context of a systematic merit-based compensation system, a focus on providing general financial services to high net-worth clients by professional employees having professional attributes and able to satisfy the various needs of their clients.
Achieving financial indices comparable to those of advanced banks by use of strengthened efficiency in profitability, production, and soundness in all business areas.
Woori Bank has had a positive result from its management reform effort. Due to continuous improvements in management, Woori Bank's positive management results have been qualitatively reflected in its key financial statements since the year 2000, and spurring a rising trend toward reaching the level of advanced banks.
The current status of Woori Bank's presence in the United States shows that the bank operates agencies in both Los Angeles and New York, which are actively engaged in business. Besides these agencies, the bank operates Woori Bank America, a locally-chartered bank based in the Northeast, which covers the local industry and Korean-American customers.
The bank has future plans to increase its operations in the United States. Given the current atmosphere of fierce competition in the domestic market between domestic and foreign banks, rather than actively entering foreign markets, the bank plans to concentrate on its competitiveness in the domestic financial market.
However, in the long-term, the bank plans to increase its presence in the U.S. market, in light of the fact that the bank consider the U.S. market to be important as it is well-developed and systemized and has many potential customers, especially in the Korean-American society. The bank has branches in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Bahrain, Hanoi, Dacca, and Gaesung Industrial Complex in North Korea. It has locally-incorporated affiliates in the United States and Indonesia, in addition to liaison offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Moscow.
As a representative bank in Korea with an active branch network and a highly local customer base, the bank has sufficient know-how to serve a role as an investment guide due to its geographic location in Northeast Asia, including China and Japan, as well as for the following reasons.
The bank has a strong market presence in corporate finance and investment finance. It has contributed to the development of the Korean economy and using its abundant corporate finance know-how has built the largest corporate customer base, including such large corporations as Samsung, LG, and many others.
Through administration of the RM system, a business efforts and personnel channel, the bank has continued to accumulate corporate customers.
Through its recent efforts to expand the capacity of its investment banking business, the bank has departed from the traditional role of capital provider between borrowers and lenders to also be active in the areas of SOC, ABS, Project Financing, M&As, and the bank will continue its efforts in the important role of investment brokering. nw