Hana Bank strengthened its position in South Korea’s custody market over the review period through a combination of technology investment, institutional mandate wins and improved client servicing.
Assets under custody increased by 6.5% year-on-year to KRW254.8 trillion ($186 billion) at the end of 2025. The bank added 365 fund contracts during the year and secured custody mandates from the Korea Investment Pool and National Pension Service, expanding a client roster that also includes Korea Post, the Government Employees Pension Service and Korea Teachers’ Pension.
Central to this progress was the launch of a new custody system in March 2025. Developed over 17 months, the platform introduced multi-currency accounting, straight-through processing and closer integration with domestic and international depositories. Operational efficiency improved by between 15% and 20%, even as domestic custody transactions increased by 11.5% and global transactions by 78.4%. The system recorded no incidents involving asset loss or short-selling failures.
Hana Bank demonstrated how investment in post-trade infrastructure can improve both operational control and client experience
The bank also strengthened corporate actions processing by cross-checking domestic information from the Korea Securities Depository against several market data sources. For overseas assets, information is verified against messages from five global custodians and two international central securities depositories. In 2025, Hana Bank completed all 42 proxy voting instructions it handled.
Clients also benefited from shorter onboarding times. Domestic onboarding was reduced from two business days to one following completion of contracts, while the benchmark for US market onboarding fell from 21 to 14 business days.
With automated reconciliation, segregated fund accounts and broader international connectivity, Hana Bank demonstrated how investment in post-trade infrastructure can improve both operational control and client experience.
