The Financial Supervisory Service said on the 21st that last year's net income of domestic banks' overseas branches was $1.651 billion (about 2.4 trillion won), up 2.3% from a year earlier.
Based on local subsidiaries and branches excluding representative offices, the total assets of domestic banks' overseas branches last year came to $233.13 billion (about 334.5 trillion won). This was up 7.4% from $217.08 billion at the end of the previous year. By country, the United States had the largest total assets at $37.6 billion, followed by China at $32.07 billion and the United Kingdom at $27.53 billion. Last year, the ratio of substandard-or-below loans at domestic banks' overseas branches was 1.36%, down 0.10 percentage point from 1.46% at the end of the previous year.
Last year, domestic banks had a total of 211 overseas outlets in 41 countries, up by four from 207 in 41 countries at the end of the previous year. Five outlets were newly established—one local subsidiary and four branches—while one representative office was closed, increasing the total number of outlets. By type, branches were the most numerous at 96, followed by local subsidiaries at 61 and representative offices at 54. Compared with the end of the previous year, local subsidiaries and branches increased, while representative offices decreased.
By country, India had the most overseas outlets with 22, followed by Vietnam with 20, the United States with 17, China with 16, and Myanmar with 14. By region, Asia had 142 outlets, accounting for 67.3% of all overseas outlets, followed by Europe with 31 (14.7%), the Americas with 29 (13.7%), and other regions with 9 (4.3%).
Last year, the composite evaluation grade for the localization index of domestic banks' overseas branches was 2+, the same as the previous year. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it assesses on a 15-grade scale from 1+ to 5-, reflecting 50% for the localization level of overseas branches and 50% for the headquarters' internationalization level, to encourage close-to-market management at overseas branches.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it plans to strengthen monitoring of the soundness and trends of overseas branches in response to prolonged war–related supply chain disruptions, rising energy prices, and potential financial market corrections, and to encourage stronger internal controls and risk management for overseas branches at the bank headquarters level.