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Full Version: S Korean banks struggle to diversify business portfolios
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This global phenomenon, often referred to as the big blur, resulted in the diminishing competitiveness of traditional banks, thereby forcing the financial industry to diversify its business portfolio in order to survive.

Last July, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced plans to enter the tourism industry by acquiring restaurant website, Infatuation, and a travel mileage platform called cxLoyalty. Various global banks, such as Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and DBS Bank in Singapore, have since followed suit.

Even banks in Japan, which has been suffering from a protracted economic recession, are striving to increase their profits outside of interest earnings, encouraged by the government's easing of regulations. Last July, MUFG Bank, affiliated with the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, began a trading business whereby it purchases company's inventory at a low price and then resells it at a markup.

Several pilot projects offering new services from commercial banks have been partially approved by financial authorities to encourage innovation. But few of these services have made a lasting impact on the market, apart from Shinhan Bank's food delivery brokerage service and KB Kookmin Bank's mobile virtual network operator service.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/202...58540.html