BNI opens branch in South Korea, full operation to start in September

JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - State lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk (IDX: BBNI) will open its branch in Seoul, South Korea and to start full operation in September after securing preliminary license in April this year. The Seoul branch will be BNI’s sixth overseas branches after Tokyo, New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.

BNI president director Achmad Baiquni, said the Seoul branch will offer customers a number of services, including trade finance, remittance, offshore loans, conventional funding and treasury business.

South Korea is deemed important as its investments in Indonesia are among top 10 largest. Trade activities between the two countries amounted to over $20 billion in 2013 and are believed to expand.

The expansion of the national bank was given a green light following the signing of a joint agreement between Indonesia and South Korea on increasing supervision capacity and information exchange between financial service authorities from both countries.

“We have issued the permit as the first step, and we will issue an official permit after examining the requirements they have fulfilled to open a business [in South Korea],” said the South Korea Financial Supervisory Services (FSS) Governor Zhin Woong-seob.

He promised to expedite the issuance of the permit for a BNI branch in South Korea as he believed that the bank would benefit Indonesians and South Koreans.

BNI announced earlier that it was expanding its reach into overseas markets. The bank’s current international presence spreads from London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo to Hong Kong.

The opening of BNI branch was in conjunction with the visit of Vice President Jusuf Kalla to South Korea last week.

Commissioner Chairman of the FInancial Service Authority (OJK) Muliaman D. Hadad supports BNI’s move. “Korea considers Indonesia as an important business partner. Therefore, we also encourage Indonesian businessmen to enter Korea,” Hadad said.

The opening of the BNI branch was in line with reciprocal agreement between Indonesia and South Korea government. (*)