Woori Bank, New York Agency is an agency of Woori Bank, Seoul, Korea ("Head Office") and is not separately incorporated legal entity. Hanvit Bank changed its brand to Woori on May 20th. 2002 to coincide the the name with the bank's holding company. According to the merge of two retail banks, The Commercial Bank of Korea, Ltd. and Hanil Bank, in January 1999, the operations of each bank's New York Agency were merged effectively on January 4, 1999. The agency conducts general banking operations including buying, selling, paying and collecting bills, issuing letters of credit, and granting loans primarily to Korean and Korean- American business. According to the US regulatory agencies' strong regulatory supervision and request of improvement in operational infrastructure, the agency has put an great effort to establish operation infrastructure such as loan review function, audit function, compliance function, IT function, and risk management system, which are greatly improved to U.S. banks' level. The agency has business strategies of localizing marketing force, establishing core business sector as center for funds transfer and foreign settlement, and coordinating with other foreign banks in syndicated loans and investments. Therefore, the agency will put an best efforts to accomplish these goals, so that the bank is viewed as the highest quality, best regarded financial institution.