NH Financial Research Institute Wins Grand Prize at 2021 Financial Security Institute Paper Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] NH Nonghyup Financial Group announced on the 24th that Jeongwoo Lee, a senior researcher at NH Financial Research Institute, won the grand prize at the '2021 Financial Innovation and Security Paper Contest' hosted by the Financial Security Institute.

At the award ceremony held during the Financial Security Conference ‘FISCON 2021’ the previous day, the team led by senior researcher Jeongwoo Lee received the grand prize (Financial Services Commission Chairman Award).

Since 2017, the Financial Security Institute has held an annual contest to promote interest in digital financial innovation and financial security. The paper that won the grand prize, titled 'A Study on Calculating Financial Accessibility and Analyzing Vulnerable Areas Due to Bank Branch Mergers and Closures,' calculated accessibility at the city, county, and district level nationwide by using actual road networks to measure access distances amid the accelerating phase of bank branch consolidation. It analyzed changes over ten years and identified vulnerable areas in accessibility. Amid vague concerns about worsening financial accessibility recently, the study was conducted using real data and included ways to utilize the research for data-driven policy making.

According to the research results, the average distance to the nearest bank was analyzed as 0.84 km in metropolitan areas, 1.44 km in small and medium-sized cities, and 7.57 km in rural areas. While commercial and regional banks are concentrated mainly in urban areas, NH Nonghyup Bank branches are significantly distributed in rural areas, playing a major role in preventing nationwide financial exclusion.

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