Woori Bank said Wednesday it has issued $275 million in foreign-currency bonds from four overseas branches in London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Singapore.
Until now, Woori Bank had handled foreign-currency bond issuance exclusively at its headquarters. This marks the first time its overseas branches have issued bonds directly.
Woori Bank said the issuance secured stable long-term funding with maturities of two to five years, laying the groundwork to strengthen the business base and profitability of its overseas branches.
The issuance used a Medium Term Note (MTN) program. Under this method, an issuer registers a borrowing limit in advance in the global capital markets and then issues foreign-currency bonds within that range whenever needed. In January this year, Woori Bank's headquarters added four branches — London in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Los Angeles in the United States and Singapore — as eligible issuing branches.
Woori Bank plans to further build up the self-funding capabilities of its overseas branches based on this achievement. By the end of the year, it plans to expand the total issuance limit of its MTN program to $10 billion from the current $7 billion, allocating $1 billion of that to its overseas branches.
