KOREAN BANKS GREET NEW YEAR WITH RESTRUCTURING.

AsiaPulse News, January, 2004

SEOUL, Jan 2 Asia Pulse - Domestic banks rang in the new year by initiating restructuring for increased profitability.

According to a financial industry source, Chohung Bank (KSE:000010) closed 26 out of about 540 branches that had fallen short of profitability as of the end of last year.

"As we transform our operating organization into a profit-based one, we closed low-efficiency and redundant branches," a bank official said.

Chohung will send 20 per cent of its 1,800-strong workforce at the head office to the remaining bank branches, where each branch chief can manage the dispatched workers according to branch profit goals, which means a de facto shrinkage of the workforce.

Chohung was widely expected to report a loss of around 1...