In It for the Long Haul

Standard Chartered Korea fulfills its motto of “Here for good”

As a foreign-invested company with a roughly 120-year history, Standard Chartered Korea knows the importance of keeping up.

The company went through a rebranding in January, from SC First Bank (SC Jeil) to Standard Chartered Bank. The month before that it opened two Smart Banking Centres in Gangnam. It launched its first iPad app for main banking services in February.

There’s also the fact that Standard Chartered Korea has created more than 2,315 jobs in Korea, opened 91 branches and renovated 184 branches since 2005.

“One of the fascinating things about Korea is that on the one hand you’ve got years and years of history, a 5,000-year history, and yet it is one of the most dynamic countries in the world,” said Hill. “So that’s a big challenge and also a big opportunity.”

The largest direct foreign investor in Korea’s financial services industry with market capital of 4.4 trillion won ($3.87 billion), Standard Chartered in Korea comprises the holding company, Standard Chartered Korea, and five subsidiaries - the main bank, a savings bank, a capital company, a securities company and a fund services company. Standard Chartered established the holding company in 2009, becoming the first international bank to do so. It has 4.5 million consumer banking customers and about 8,300 wholesale banking clients.

The main bank, known as Standard Chartered Bank, is the largest of the subsidiaries and has 379 branches. It offers business services for large Korean businesses, support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and the full suite of domestic retail banking services. It also uses its global network to support Korean enterprises in emerging markets.

The London-headquartered Standard Chartered PLC has operations in more than 70 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It experienced its ninth successive year of record growth and a profit increase of $6.8 billion in 2011. Hill said the rebranding of his bank is part of the company’s attempt to make its staff and customers feel like a part of this larger growth.

The rebranding also signals a new start for the bank, which underwent major changes last year and labor union-related strife that resulted in a 10-week strike. The company completed negotiations with the union and signed an agreement late last month.

“What we were seeing in our customers is that they wanted change and that they want new services,” Hill said. “And so it was up to us to provide new solutions.”

It is this readiness to change that has kept Standard Chartered in Korea since the 1880s. There was an interruption in operations during the Japanese occupation, but the history resumes from two points - from 1929, with the creation of Chosun Savings Bank, which in 1958 became Korea First Bank, which was acquired by Standard Chartered in 2005, and from 1969, which is when Standard Chartered re-entered Korea under its current name.

Which such deep roots in Korea, the company considers itself not just a successful foreign investor, but a model for others. In recent years, Hill has joined Invest KOREA on overseas trade visits and presented on what it’s like to invest here.

“I think that’s part of our responsibility, is to show to other investors the other opportunities that there are in Korea,” Hill said.

Of course, Hill’s primary aim is to keep the bank evolving, to be an exception to the fact that banking tends to be an industry that lags when it comes to innovation.

“We’re looking to change the way the banking experience works for our customers,” said Hill. “So we’re looking for a quite dynamic future.”