South Korean Bank Gets Approval for U.S. Branch

South Korea's fourth-largest bank is coming to the United States.

The Federal Reserve Board has approved an application by NongHyup Bank to open a branch and a representative office in New York. The bank currently already has a representative office in New York and a nonbank unit in California. The planned representative office would replace its current one.

The representative office would serve as a liaison between the bank's U.S. customers and will also solicit loan sales of $250,000 and more, the Fed order states. The branch would handle money transfers, provide financing for Korean companies doing business in the United States and offer trade-finance services for companies doing business in South Korea

The $175 billion-asset bank was created last year as part of the restructuring the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, a state-sponsored umbrella organization for agricultural cooperatives The cooperative's banking and credit operations were transferred to the bank as part of the restructuring The bank has 1,172 branches in South Korea that provide general commercial, agricultural and credit card lending, while also handling trusts and deposits

Representatives for the Fed and the bank's New York representative office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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