SHINHAN BANK was founded in 1897 by Kim Jong-han, it is a bank headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was the first bank in Korea, established in 1897 as Hanseong Bank. The bank was re-established in 1982. It is part of Shinhan Financial Group along with Jeju Bank. On 1 April 2006, Chohang Bank merged with Shinhan Bank.
Shinhan Bank started as a small enterprise on July 7, 1982 with a capital stock of KRW 25.0 billion, 279 employees and three branches. As of 2006 this bank had KRW 9.7 trillion, 10,741 employees and 1,026 branches. Shinhan Bank is the main subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group.
Shinhan Bank is a descendant of Hanseong Bank, the first modern bank in Korea. It started operating around 1900. It was originally located in a small house with only two rooms. One room was for the chairman, Yi Jae-won, and the other was for the staff. The bank operates by borrowing money from Japanese banks at low interest rates and then lending it to the Korean market at double the rate. The bank was successful because, despite lending money at twice the rate it had borrowed, the bank’s interest rates were much lower than what could be obtained elsewhere in Korea at the time.]
