IBK eyes expansion with 'Asian finance belt'

A pedestrian walks past the IBK headquarters in Seoul. (Bloomberg)

The Industrial Bank of Korea is seeking to tap into more Asian countries, as part of an overseas expansion beyond its current businesses in China and Vietnam.

Its overseas expansion policy is part of the bank's roadmap to set up the "IBK Finance Belt in East Asia" by 2015.

It has a mid-term project of opening bank branches in three Asian countries ― India, Indonesia and Thailand ― in the coming years after initially opening liaison offices.

In addition, IBK, which already operates bank branches in China and Vietnam, is poised to expand business networks in those two countries.

The state-owned bank plans to increase the number of branches in China from the current nine to 16 by the end of 2013. The nine branches are located in major Chinese cities including Tianjin, Qingdao, Shenyang, Yantai and Suzhou.

In Vietnam, IBK is moving to develop the liaison office in Hanoi into a branch. Its Ho Chi Minh branch opened in March 2008.

Domestically, the bank has been pushing to actively attract retail customers while its main role has been funding small and mid-sized enterprises.

The bank's business target includes increasing the number of corporate customers from the current 850,000 to 1 million by the end of 2013.

Established in 1961, IBK has played a significant role in the nation's economic development by supporting SMEs as a state-controlled lender.

In the long-term, the bank is preparing to become a comprehensive financial services provider.< ⓒKoreaHerald(www.koreaherald.com)무단전재 및 재배포 금지 >