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(NH NongHyup Bank) |
South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank said Tuesday it launched a virtual Dokdo branch, which customers can visit on its mobile app and subscribe to financial products tied to the nation’s easternmost islets.
The virtual space, designed to celebrate the bank’s 60th anniversary, offers users of All One Bank app with Dokdo-themed environmental, social and governance-related financial products. Users can also visit a virtual gift shop where they can purchase popular “Dokdo shrimps,” caught off the islets, for 1,000 won ($0.85) each.
NH NongHyup said that it eventually plans to expand the virtual islets into a metaverse platform and plans to launch other similar spaces such as “branch Asia” and “branch billiards,” incorporating the diverse interests of its customers.
Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between Korea and Japan, with Tokyo continuing to make the sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.
Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan‘s 1910-45 colonial rule.
“Starting with our Dokdo branch, we plan to continue launching various branches and develop it into our own special metaverse platform which incorporates the interests of millennials and Gen Z, such as games, communities and finance,” NH NongHyup Bank CEO Kwon Joon-hak said.
By Jung Min-kyung (
mkjung@heraldcorp.com)
