Taipei Fubon Bank to launch first office in Seoul

Taipei Fubon Bank, the banking arm of Taiwan's Fubon Financial Holding, is waiting to receive the final nod from the local authorities to launch its first office in Seoul.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service recently completed its review of the Taiwanese commercial bank’s office establishment application and forwarded its opinion to the Financial Services Commission, an FSS official confirmed Thursday.

“Foreign banks can establish new offices through a reporting system, but final approval rests with the FSC. We reviewed Taipei Fubon Bank's application this month and recently submitted our opinion, and the FSC will now make its decision,” said the FSS official, who was in charge of the review process.

Under local regulations, the FSS is entrusted with reviewing foreign banks’ applications for office or branch establishments from the FSC, which holds final approval authority.

With regulations requiring approval within 30 days of application submission, the Taiwanese lender is expected to officially open its office in December.

This comes around nine months after the bank received approval from Taiwanese financial authorities in March to establish a representative office in Seoul.

Taipei Fubon Bank's parent company, Fubon Financial Holdings, is Taiwan’s largest financial conglomerate by market cap. It is ranked fourth after TSMC, Foxconn and MediaTek at $69.34 billion -- three times the size of Korea’s leading KB Financial Group, which has a market cap of 33.8 trillion won ($22.34 billion). The company operates across various financial sectors, including banking, insurance and investment, with a presence in nine Asian countries.

Taipei Fubon Bank's foray into Korea follows the lead of Fubon Hyundai Life Insurance, the group’s Korean insurance arm, which was established in 2018 after Fubon Financial acquired Hyundai Life Insurance from Hyundai Motor Group. Fubon Life Insurance is currently the largest shareholder of Fubon Hyundai Life, with an 83.22 percent stake.

Fubon Financial Holdings has strengthened its position in the Korean financial market, holding a 19.98 percent stake in Hyundai Card. Taipei Fubon Bank is a strategic investor, owning half of that stake, with the remainder held by Fubon Life Insurance. Fubon Life also owns a 3.8 percent stake in Woori Financial Group, one of Korea’s four major financial conglomerates.

As foreign bank offices are restricted from profit-making activities, Taipei Fubon Bank’s inaugural office is expected to focus on market research and explore collaboration opportunities with Taiwanese companies in Korea. Taiwan is Korea’s sixth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $44.6 billion in 2023.

Meanwhile, this marks the first time a Taiwanese bank is entering the Korean market by establishing its own office. Previously, Yuanta Savings Bank, part of Yuanta Financial Holding, began operations in Korea in 2017 through the acquisition of Hanshin Savings Bank. .