Woori Bank directly issued foreign currency bonds through four overseas branches in London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Singapore. It said the move laid the groundwork for each branch to secure long-term foreign currency funds needed for local overseas business, moving away from a structure focused on short-term funding.

Woori Bank said on Tuesday the four overseas branches issued foreign currency bonds locally to raise a total of $275 million.

The company said it expects the issuance to improve its ability to manage its overseas business base and profitability by securing long-term foreign currency funding with maturities of 2 to 5 years.

The issuance used an MTN programme. An MTN programme is a medium- to long-term funding method that allows issuers to register an issuance limit in advance in global capital markets and then issue foreign currency bonds as needed within that limit.

By branch, the Hong Kong branch issued a total of $180 million in four tranches from April to May. The Los Angeles branch raised $20 million on June 25, the London branch $45 million on July 1 and the Singapore branch $30 million on July 8.

Woori Bank plans to expand overseas branches' self-funding capacity.

In the second half, it plans to add an item giving extra points for activating the MTN programme to the evaluation criteria for overseas branches. By year-end, it plans to raise the programme's total issuance limit to $10 billion from $7 billion. Of that, $1 billion will be allocated to issuance by overseas branches.

Hong Jin-bang (홍진방), deputy head of Woori Bank's funding department, said, "Completing the overseas branches' self-issuance of foreign currency bonds is meaningful." He said, "We will continue to further strengthen our overseas business base."