Chohung Bank Co., Ltd. (CHB;, sometimes transcribed as Joheung Bank) was a bank company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was formed by the 1943 merger of Hanseong Bank, established in 1897 and sometimes referred to as Korea's first bank, and Dong-il Bank , originally established in 1906 as Hanil Bank (, not to be confused with the namesake South Korean Bank active between 1960 and 1999) and renamed in 1931.
By the mid-1990s, Chohung Bank was one of the five most prominent banks in South Korea, together with Korea First Bank, Korea Commercial Bank, Hanil Bank, and Seoul Bank.[1] It was negatively affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and eventually merged into Shinhan Financial Group in 2003-2006.
Korean Empire and Japanese rule
Hanseong Bank was established on 1897/02/19.[3] The Bank was successful because despite lending out money at twice the rate it borrowed it at, the bank's interest rates were still far lower than what could be obtained elsewhere in Korea at that time.