Hana Financial Group was established in 1971 as Korea Investment & Finance, Korea's first financial company established solely by private funds. In 1991, Korea Investment & Finance was converted into a commercial bank and renamed Hana Bank. In 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, Hana Bank merged with Chungchong Bank and Boram Bank. In 2002, Hana Bank acquired Seoul Bank. In 2005, Hana Financial Group acquired Daehan Investment and Securities, then Korea's second-largest asset management company. In 2012, Hana Financial Group acquired a 51.02 percent stake in Korea Exchange Bank from Lone Star Funds for KRW 2.02 trillion. Due to opposition from the KEB labor union, the merger between KEB and Hana Bank was delayed until 2015, and the two banks operated independently under the Hana Financial Group umbrella. An arbitration suit for additional compensation filed by Lone Star was dismissed in May 2019.
Hana Financial, Inc. is not a member of Hana Financial Group. Founded in 1994, Hana Financial, Inc. is a non-bank financial institution, which offers factoring, asset based lending, and SBA lending. Hana Financial, Inc. has about $2 billion in annual factoring and loan originations.
Overseas operations
Subsidiaries of Hana Financial Group are active in 24 countries, spanning Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. In particular, Hana Financial Group has substantial equity investments in banks in China, Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2007 Hana Financial Group established a subsidiary in China, Hana Bank China. In 2009 Hana Bank China was licensed to perform transactions involving Renminbi and debit card transactions. A year later, Hana Financial Group acquired an 18.44% stake in the Bank of Jilin Co. Ltd. In January, 2011 the group entered into a strategic alliance with the China Merchants Bank. PT Bank KEB Hana was set up in 2007 as Hana Financial Group's subsidiary in Indonesia. In 2019, Hana Financial Group's subsidiary KEB Hana Bank acquired a 15% stake in Vietnam's BIDV.
