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ank KEB Hana, part of South Korea'€™s Hana Financial Group, will enter the retail business in Indonesia and expects to become one of the country'€™s top 20 banks.

Bank KEB Hana consumer business director Bayu Wisnu War-dhana said the lender was ready to push its assets to at least Rp 60 trillion (US$4.72 billion) to reach the top 20 list.

As of December last year, the bank posted around Rp 22 trillion in total assets and was on the list of the country'€™s top 50 banks, he added.

'€œWe hope to grow our total assets to reach Rp 30 trillion this year, with around Rp 2 trillion going to our new retail segment,'€ he said on Thursday.

Bank Hana and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) Indonesia officially announced their merger in March last year. Hana became the surviving entity after the Financial Services Authority (OJK) approved the merger and changed the former'€™s official name to Bank KEB Hana.

Prior to the merger, Bank Hana was 75.1 percent owned by Hana Bank Korea, 19.9 percent by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and 5 percent owned by Indonesian businessman Bambang Setijo.

Meanwhile, KEB Indonesia was 99 percent controlled by KEB Korea and 1 percent by multi-finance firm Clemont Finance Indonesia.

Hana'€™s shareholder composition consists of KEB Korea with 49.8 percent, Hana Bank Korea with 37.3 percent, the IFC with 9.9 percent, Bambang with 2.5 percent and Clemont with the remaining 0.5 percent.

Bayu said the lender planned to launch a number of retail products this year through various distribution channels and strategies, such as recruiting more sales, increasing advertisements as well as building partnerships with other banks and financial institutions.

On Thursday, Bank KEB Hana launched its co-branding partnership with BNI Syariah '€” a subsidiary of state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) '€” on a blended product of savings and a sharia credit card, which offered customers of both banks a free-trip to South Korea.

'€œWith our lack of vast networks across the country, it is essential to build partnerships with banks
and other institutions that are able to offer us many advantages,'€  he said.

In terms of consumer loans, Bayu said the bank would also introduce personal loans and mortgages for upper-middle class customers, adding that mortgages would cover around 90 percent of the total retail segment.

Bayu added the lender was waiting for the OJK'€™s permit to launch its first wealth management and priority banking business, which was expected to start in the first quarter this year.

According to Bayu, Bank KEB Hana '€” which has a balanced customer portfolio of both South Korean and Indonesian companies '€” is expecting to reach 100,000 individual customers from its current level of 76,000.

Also on Thursday, Bank KEB Hana finance director Lee Hwa Soo said the lender planned to open 20 new branches this year, of which five were carried over from last year.

To support the overall plans, Bayu said the bank expected to grow its capital to enter the BUKU III category from its current position at BUKU II with a capital adequacy ratio above 20 percent.