This article was published on May 22, 2026, at 16:38 on Signal, the capital markets compass.
Korea Investors Service (KIS) said that long-term monitoring is needed to determine whether tangible results will materialize from Hanwha Investment & Securities and Hana Bank's acquisitions of stakes in Dunamu. While Hanwha Investment & Securities could face heightened short-term financial pressure from the large-scale investment, the impact on Hana Bank's capital adequacy is expected to be limited, according to the analysis.
In a report released Friday, KIS said of Hanwha Investment & Securities, which recently acquired an additional 3.9% stake in Dunamu, that "whether business synergies materialize will be a factor for long-term monitoring," adding that "the large-scale investment has expanded short-term financial burdens." Regarding Hana Bank, which committed 1 trillion won to Dunamu, KIS said business results would also need to be verified, but the impact on capital adequacy would be limited.
Under the deal, Hanwha Investment & Securities and Hana Bank will jointly acquire 3,645,050 of the 3,690,050 Dunamu common shares held by Kakao Investment. Hanwha Investment & Securities will spend 597.8 billion won to acquire an additional 1,361,050 shares, raising its stake in Dunamu from 5.93% to 9.84%. Hana Bank will spend 1.0033 trillion won to acquire 2,284,000 shares, securing a 6.55% stake. The scheduled acquisition date for both Hanwha Investment & Securities and Hana Bank is the 15th of next month.
For Hanwha Investment & Securities, the investment amount equals 29.3% of its consolidated equity capital of 2.039 trillion won as of the end of March this year. KIS said the large-scale investment and increased external funding would expand the burden of unmatched borrowings, while the rise in total risk exposure from the Dunamu stake acquisition would lower its capital ratios. Following the share transaction, the net capital ratio (NCR) is estimated to decline from 740% at the end of April this year to 707%, while the operational net capital ratio is projected to fall from 255% to 208%.
However, KIS assessed that strengthening ties with Dunamu could be positive for expanding the digital asset business. The agency said that as small and mid-sized securities firms find it difficult to enhance competitiveness through traditional capital expansion alone, the move represents an attempt to secure a strategic position within the digital finance ecosystem through equity investments in fintech players such as Dunamu and Toss Bank. Still, since blockchain and digital asset-related industries are in the early stages of institutionalization and business model development, actual collaboration outcomes and changes in the regulatory environment were cited as key variables.
For Hana Bank, KIS viewed its review of blockchain infrastructure as more of a response to changes in next-generation digital payment infrastructure—including real-time settlement, programmable payments, and deposit token-based settlement systems—rather than a simple virtual asset investment. The impact on capital adequacy is also assessed to be limited. KIS estimated that even if risk-weighted assets (RWA) increase by 2.5 trillion won as a result of the investment, Hana Bank's common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio would decline only about 0.2 percentage points, from 16.4% at the end of last year to 16.2%.
