The 'Handshake' Between Commercial Banks and Savings Banks... The Prelude to Breaking Industry Boundaries

Hana Bank and SBI Savings Bank signed a business agreement on the 12th at Hana Bank's headquarters in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, to provide overseas remittance and foreign currency exchange services. In the agreement ceremony, Jo Jong-hyung, head of Hana Bank's Foreign Exchange Business Division (right), and Yoo Hyun-guk, head of SBI Savings Bank's Retail Sales Division, are taking a commemorative photo. Photo by Hana Bank

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Commercial banks and savings banks have joined hands. This is the first time that a bank and a savings bank have formed a partnership. In the financial sector, there are talks that the boundaries between different financial industries are beginning to break down.

According to the financial industry on the 16th, Hana Bank and SBI Savings Bank recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation and linkage of overseas foreign exchange services.

Through this agreement, Hana Bank will provide foreign exchange service solutions and systems to SBI Savings Bank. Users will be able to access Hana Bank's overseas remittance service 'Hana EZ' and mobile currency exchange service 'Hwanjeon Jigeop' on the SBI Savings Bank application (app).

This agreement marks the first business partnership between a commercial bank and a savings bank for overseas remittance services. Hana Bank is expected to build and develop a top-level system for providing foreign exchange services, while SBI Savings Bank will create synergy by linking internal systems and offering new foreign exchange services utilizing this system.

A Hana Bank official stated, "This partnership was prepared to enhance customer convenience in response to the increase in mobile-based non-face-to-face financial transactions."

From SBI Savings Bank's perspective, integrating Hana Bank's technology into their app significantly improves customer convenience. An SBI Savings Bank official said, "We planned to enter the overseas remittance business to enable customers using savings banks to access financial services more conveniently."

Until now, banks and savings banks have divided the market as first-tier and second-tier financial sectors, respectively, to serve customers. However, with the rapid increase in non-face-to-face and mobile transactions, the boundaries have become blurred. Customers are more likely to engage with financial companies that provide mobile-optimized services, regardless of whether they are banks or savings banks. It is expected that cooperation between financial sectors and joint service offerings will continue to actively progress in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.