This article was published on May 7, 2026, at 17:59 on Signal, the capital markets compass.
The National Pension Service (NPS) said Wednesday that it has selected Woori Bank as the preferred bidder to serve as its foreign currency custodian bank, which handles foreign exchange transactions and foreign currency management accounts for the fund.
NPS issued a public tender notice for the selection of a foreign currency custodian bank in March and designated Woori Bank as the top-ranked preferred bidder after a process of receiving and reviewing proposals.
This marks the first selection of a foreign currency custodian bank by NPS in five years since 2021. To encourage applications from capable domestic banks, NPS eased bidding qualifications by relaxing the limit on the number of business areas that banks under the same financial holding group can undertake.
NPS plans to sign a final contract in June after conducting on-site due diligence and technical negotiations with the preferred bidder. As of the end of February 2026, NPS fund reserves stood at 1,610 trillion won ($1.19 trillion), of which about 55%, or 886 trillion won ($654 billion), are overseas assets.
"As the fund's overseas investment scale has grown, stable foreign exchange transactions are very important," NPS Chairman Kim Sung-joo said. "We will wrap up this foreign currency custodian bank selection well so that the fund's foreign currency transactions and cash management can be carried out smoothly."
