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South Korean Banks Back to Normal After Week-Long Strike
South Korea's two major commercial banks were on Friday operating as normal after a week-long paralyzing strike in protest at a proposed merger, bank officials said.
"All bank offices opened for normal business today," said spokesmen from both Kookmin and Housing and Commercial Bank (HCB).
Union members at the two banks had gone on strike since last Friday when their presidents announced both would merge into a "super bank," igniting fears that the marriage would cause mass layoffs.
The strike, which had severely crippled the operations at the two banks' 1,127 branches nationwide, ended as riot police crushed a sit-in by some 10,000 protesters Wednesday.
The Korean Financial Industry Union, an association of bank unions, also called off a planned general strike at 15 banks Thursday.
The proposed Kookmin-HCB merger was a part of the government's financial reform crusade to consolidate the debt-stricken banking sector.
The merged entity would create the country's largest bank with 122.2 trillion won (US$100 billion) in combined customer deposits, 19,888 employees and 1,149 branches, officials said.
South Korean financial institutions are saddled with 76 trillion won (US$60 billion) of bad loans, requiring an injection of more public funds.
The government said it would begin pouring 7.1 trillion won (US$5.6 billion) of fresh funds into six other debt-weakened financial institutions, including Hanvit Bank, to shed bad loans Friday.
Hanvit will get the biggest share of 4.5 trillion won, officials said.
The government supports the Kookmin-HCB merger as the centerpiece of its reforms, which has forced an injection of US$100 billion in public funds since the country was hit hard by the 1997 Asian crisis.
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