Woori Bank targets wealthy customers with planned branch expansion

Woori Bank pledged to expand the number of branches serving wealthy customers by more than threefold in two years to become a specialized wealth management bank.

Woori Bank CEO Cho Byung-kyu speaks to bank employees at a conference in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, in January. [YONHAP]

Woori Bank pledged to expand the number of branches serving wealthy customers by more than threefold in two years to become a specialized wealth management bank.

Woori Bank said it will increase the number of Two Chairs W centers — branches that exclusively provide private banking service for customers with a billion won ($752,000) or more in assets — from the current six to 20 nationwide by 2026.

Two Chairs W is a brand initiated by Woori Bank CEO Cho Byung-kyu upon his inauguration last year. Branches are in Cheongdam-dong and Daechi-dong in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, and Busan. New branches will open in Banpo-dong in Seocho, southern Seoul, and the northern part of Seoul.

“Banks have been expanding sales of investment products like equity-linked securities (ELS) to raise non-interest margins,” said Woori Bank. “People frequently raise issues with how they were sold, like the ongoing [losses from] Hong Kong-tied ELS, raising customers' distrust in the financial sector's overall wealth management services.”

The bank added, “So we’ve decided to focus on customer-centered portfolios as the top priority of wealth management rather than sales of financial products.”

Woori said it adopted an AI-based market prediction system and operates an evaluation model for investment products developed in-house.

Woori's CEO pledged in January that the bank would achieve the highest net profit among all commercial banks this year — from its current fourth position — by raising the competitiveness of core businesses and the digital sector and securing future growth engines.

Woori said it will focus on risk management and strengthen the synergy effects of the affiliated companies for this year’s earnings.

The bank reported 2.52 trillion won in net profit in the first quarter of this year, down 13.1 percent from the previous quarter.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]