Koreatown-based Hanmi Bank opened its first representative office in Seoul, South Korea last month.
Hanmi’s Seoul office will not provide banking transactions but is meant to “drive additional engagement and business activity,” Bonnie Lee, president and chief executive of Hanmi, said.
The office was created in an effort to better serve Hanmi clients involved in the bank’s U.S. Subsidiaries of Korean Companies (USKC) business initiative. USKC has grown “organically,” Lee said, and is meant to support South Korean-based companies doing business in the U.S.
Lee views USKC as “a competitive advantage” and “an area of growth” for Hanmi.
“Clients should expect enhanced accessibility, convenience, communication and in-depth market insights,” Lee said of the new international office. “Having a representative office in Seoul ensures that we can deliver in-person and timely sound counsel, market intelligence and in-language customer support – all based on our deep understanding of the countries’ (U.S. and South Korean) business cultures.”
Clients involved in the USKC initiative will continue to receive their transactional banking services from Hanmi’s U.S.-based Corporate Korea Desks.
Hanmi has eights of these desks across the nation, half of which are in California, that work with Korean companies on a variety of banking needs including asset-based lending, equipment financing and real estate investments.
The Seoul office comes at a time of increased foreign direct investment from South Korea into the U.S. – a trend Lee expects to persist. In 2023, South Korea invested $76.7 billion into the U.S., up 37.95% from 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Currently, the new office is headed by a Hanmi team member, but Lee said the bank is evaluating opportunities to hire locally in Seoul.
“This convenient location in the heart of Seoul’s financial center is an important milestone for our USKC initiative,” Lee said.
