Foreign Banks Close Down Internet Banking Center in Korea

The major foreign banks in business within Korea, the U.S.’ Citibank and the English HSBC bank, will each transfer and merge their Korean internet banking server to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Closing the internet banking center in Korea, which has much power in information technology, can be interpreted that these banks will not confirm Korea as Asia’s monetary hub.

Yesterday, according to the finance industry, following the main bank’s policy, Citibank is planning to transfer the internet banking server in Korea to Singapore by next March at the latest.

Citibank, which has an international business network, decided to transfer and merge the internet banking servers in the main Asian countries to Singapore for efficient management and cost reduction.

A Citibank official explained, “We are just transferring the server and there are no plans for staff reduction. Clients will experience no changes when using the internet banking.”

HSBS bank has also started transferring the internet banking server in Korea to Asia’s headquarters in Hong Kong since August, for cost reduction.

HSBC bank plans to finish merging the internet banking server within this year. A commercial official said, “Major foreign banks like Citibank and HSBC moving computerized equipment means that the client information will be centralized in another country. The government’s plan to make Korea the Asian monetary hub seems to have taken a tough turn.”

An official from the Financial Supervisory Board said, “We are examining the actual conditions of the management in the foreign bank’s computer centers, and it has been found out that many of the 24 foreign banks inside the country have or will transfer the computerized equipments to another country.”

Chi-Young Shin higgledy@donga.com