Daehan Cheon-il Bank

Gwangtonggwan building in Seoul, head office of Daehan Cheon-il Bank (1909-1911) then of Chōsen Commercial Bank (1911-1924)

The Daehan Cheon-il Bank (Template:Lang-ko, sometimes transcribed as Daehancheonil Bank) was the first viable domestic joint-stock bank in Korea, established in 1899. In 1911 it was renamed Chōsen Commercial Bank (Template:Lang-ko, also transcribed as Joseon Sangup Bank), then in the 1950s Korea Commercial Bank (Template:Lang-ko), one of the predecessor entities of Woori Bank.

Background

Modern financial development in Korea started with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 and the subsequent entry into the country of joint-stock Japanese banks, which themselves had only been established in the course of that same decade. Thus, the Dai-Ichi Bank ("First Bank"), Japan's first joint-stock bank created by Shibusawa Eiichi in 1873, opened a branch in Busan in 1878, followed by Chemulpo (nowadays Incheon) in 1883. The Eighteenth Bank, established in Nagasaki in 1877, similarly opened a branch in Chemulpo in 1890.

The dominance of Japanese banks created dismay among Korean reformers. In 1894, the Joseon government created a department to oversee banking activities in the country. Several short-lived attempts were made in the following years to establish banks, including the Joseon Bank (1896), Hanseong Bank (1897) and Daehan Bank (1898).

Daehan Cheon-il Bank

On 30 January 1899, the Daehan Cheon-il Bank was created by merchants of Hanseong (nowadays Seoul) with ostensible backing by the Joseon government, which two years before had proclaimed the Korean Empire. Only Korean nationals were allowed to be shareholders, and the government was itself the bank's largest investor. Ownership of the bank was reserved for a narrow elite, with the total number of shareholders growing to only 24 in 1901 and 38 at end-1902. The bank's first president was Joseon senior official Min Byeong-seok, who in 1902 was succeeded by Prince Imperial Yeong, himself succeeded by Kim Gi-yeoung (Template:Lang-ko), one of the bank's merchant founders, in 1906, and by Lee Bong-rae in 1909.

The bank became associated with Russian interests and suffered from Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, during which it had to suspend operations. It resumed its activity in 1906.

In 1909, the Daehan Cheon-il Bank moved its head office to the street level of the newly erected Gwangtonggwan building, which had just been erected by the Takjibu (financial department) of the Korean imperial government on the thoroughfare later known as Namdaemunro in central Seoul. (The upper level was used as a public assembly hall.) Gwangtonggwan is consequently viewed as the oldest standing bank building in Korea.

Chōsen Commercial Bank and aftermath

Head office building of Chōsen Industry Bank (1923-1924), then Chōsen Commercial Bank and Korea Commercial Bank until 1965

In 1911, Daehan Cheon-il Bank was renamed by the Japanese colonial authorities as Chōsen Commercial Bank. In 1924, it merged with Chōsen Industry Bank (Template:Lang-ko, est. 1913 as Gyeongseong Bank 경성은행), and moved its head office to the latter's building, across the street northeast from the Bank of Chōsen on the same side of Namdaemunro. The building was demolished in 1965.

Chōsen Commercial Bank was renamed Korea Commercial Bank in 1950. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, that bank was rescued by the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation and merged with the similarly troubled Hanil Bank. The merged entity, known as Hanbit Bank, acquired Peace Bank in 2001 and was renamed Woori Bank in 2002.

See also

• Chōsen Industrial Bank
• Bank of Chōsen