Financial holding firms’ overseas expansion slows

Korean financial holdings companies were lukewarm about expanding their overseas operations in the first half of the year due to jitters over the eurozone debt crisis and a slowing world economy, the financial regulator said Wednesday.

The country’s 10 financial holding companies had 150 overseas branches, representative offices and wholly-owned subsidiaries as of June, compared with 151 six months earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The FSS said worsening global market conditions have forced them to fight shy of investing more on the overseas front.

China and Hong Kong accounted for the largest portion of their overseas operations, but the growth slowed in the first half, the FSS said.

The number of the operations in China decreased to 27 in the first half from 26 six months earlier, with that of Hong Kong dropping to 16 from 18. Their U.S. operations stayed unchanged with 16 in the cited period.

The financial firms had a total of 107 offices across Asia as of June, taking up 71.3 percent of the total, according to the FSS. (Yonhap News)