이 기사는 2022년 03월 14일 06:41 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korean commercial banks are moving to reduce their exposure to Russia as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues and Western nations ratchet up sanctions.

Those with the highest exposure to Russia are Hana Bank and Woori Bank, which have operations in the country. They entered the Russian market in 2008.

For both South Korean lenders, Russian operations represent a small share of their overall net profits. Hana Bank’s Russia unit generated 4.3 billion won ($3.48 million) in net profit in the first three quarters of last year, with assets of 800 billion won at the end of September 2021. In the same period, Woori Bank Russia recorded a net profit of 4.9 billion won with 478.3 billion won in assets.

Hana Bank recently activated its Business Continuity Plan, an emergency action plan, in response to the Ukraine crisis. It is also working to support South Korean companies doing business in Russia after Moscow released a list of “unfriendly” countries on March 7, in which South Korea was included, in a move to counter sanctions imposed by Western nations.

“We are focusing on continuing operations in a stable manner and complying with the government’s guidance and regulations,” a Hana Bank official said. “We are trying to curb an increase in exposure to Russia and support South Korean companies there.”

Woori Bank’s risk management department is also working to identify and respond to risks related to Russia. The lender has already started managing exposure to the country since the end of January, cutting its Russian and East European exposure by about $1.6 billion and $1.4 billion respectively.

“It is difficult to predict how things will evolve but there is a possibility that the Russia operations could be suspended in the future. We are closely monitoring the situation,” said a Woori Bank official.

Shinhan Bank and Kookmin Bank have relatively low exposure to Russia as they do not operate in the country.

All South Korean commercial banks suspended transactions with seven major Russian banks included in the US SDN list. The European Union also excluded those banks from SWIFT.

Transactions to Russian financial entities that are not sanctioned are still allowed. “We are making efforts to help South Korean companies and clients as much as we can,” a Kookmin Bank official said. (Reporting by Hyun-jung Kim)