Last Year, 304 Bank Branches Closed... KB Kookmin Bank Leads with 83 Closures

Impact of Non-Face-to-Face Transactions Expansion and Overlapping Store Closures
FSS Plans Semiannual Announcement on Store Operation Status

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Over the past year, more than 300 bank branches have closed. This is analyzed to be due to the expansion of non-face-to-face transactions such as mobile banking and the consolidation of overlapping branches.

According to the "2020 Domestic Bank Branch Operation Status" announced by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 7th, as of the end of last year, the number of domestic bank branches was 6,406, a decrease of 304 compared to the previous year (6,709). This is the largest decline since 2017 (312 branches).

Last year, 30 branches were newly opened, but 334 were closed.

By bank, KB Kookmin Bank had the highest number of closed branches at 83. This was followed by Hana Bank (74), Woori Bank (58), Busan Bank (22), and Shinhan Bank (21).

By region, the metropolitan area (capital area and metropolitan cities) saw a decrease of 251 branches, accounting for most (82.6%). Non-metropolitan areas decreased by 53 branches.

An official from the Financial Supervisory Service said, "We plan to regularly (semi-annually) announce the status of bank branch operations in the future," and added, "We will guide to ensure that the 'joint procedures related to bank branch closures' are faithfully implemented so that financial consumers do not experience inconvenience due to the reduction of branches."

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