SC First Bank mulls 24-hour service branches

CEO Hill promotes reform to compete with local commercial banks


Standard Chartered First Bank is pushing for operational reforms to enhance its competitiveness in the banking sector after suffering from months of striking by its unionized staff.

Bank CEO Richard Hill disclosed its intention to open several branches which offer offline and online services 24 hours a day and seven days a week. These would be the first of their kind in the local financial sector.

Meeting reporters in New York on Wednesday, he also said the bank plans to introduce “flexible work hours” to prepare for the 24-hour operating system.

For the reform plan, the bank is reportedly benchmarking the case of a Singapore unit of the U.K.-based Standard Chartered Group.

“In a shopping mall in Singapore, there is an SC bank branch providing customers with services till late at night,” an SC First Bank spokeswoman said.

“Our CEO’s remarks could be interpreted as a broad guideline for future business strategies,” the spokeswoman said. “It will take a certain period to concretize the plan.”

While it is expected that a series of internal discussions will precede the introduction of such branches, market observers regard the Hill’s remarks as an ambition to closely compete with Korea’s major banks such as Kookmin and Woori.

A commercial banker forecast that the project of SC First Bank could intensify competition.

“But the issue will be whether the bank will garner consent from unionized workers. In addition, I think the bank may have to consult the plan with financial regulators,” he said.

The Financial Supervisory Service is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the unprecedented move.

“We cannot comment on the issue at the present stage. We could review it when the bank inquires of us about the plan,” said a director general of the Financial Supervisory Service.

He added that the regulator is not entitled to ban financial companies from offering extra services aside from the current working hours.

An FSS official in charge of banking sector probe said an SC First Bank branch in the Dongdaemun Market district has already been offering services several hours beyond the current closing time of 4 p.m.

Concerning the bank’s reported expansion of the kind of branches, he said “security” could be an important matter, issuing the possibility of financial accidents at night.

SC First Bank has been speeding up its manpower restructuring, as unionized workers’ long-running walkout failed to garner wide support from the public.

Following the recent voluntary retirement program for executives, banking industry sources predict the bank will carry out full-fledged manpower restructuring for non-executive level employees in the coming months.

The union, which has been protesting a new performance-based wage system since June, has also demanded the management scrap the early retirement program.

Market observers say the strike has apparently lost momentum, as the bank’s branches recently yielded steady profits despite the absence of the unionized workers.

The management, aside from the retirement scheme, is considering adopting a new promotion system, to conduct personnel transfers more frequently.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)