Literally trillions of won will be physically relocated early next year in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for South Korea's central bank, bank officials noted Friday, though the actual event itself may not be for everyone to see.
The scheduled relocation of the money comes as the Bank of Korea's Seoul headquarters is set to undergo a three-year renovation that will include the reconstruction of the main annex building.
It will mark the first time the central bank, as well as its cash reserves, will relocate out of its Seoul office since the bank was founded in 1950, according to BOK officials.
The money to be relocated consists mostly of fresh bank notes.
The BOK keeps all its gold holdings at the Bank of England, Britain's central bank.
The bank itself will likely relocate to the former headquarters of Samsung Electronics in downtown Seoul, currently owned by Samsung C&T Corp.
A BOK official said the building was one of only two in Seoul with enough space to house the central bank's nearly 2,000-strong staff.
Still, due to the lack of a vault or a need to build one for what will only be temporary storage of the money at the new BOK headquarters, the bank's cash reserves will likely be moved to a Seoul branch office in Gangnam, the official noted. (Yonhap)
