South Korea will ask India to help its banks open branches in India when the finance ministers of the two countries meet this week to discuss cooperation in trade, taxation, banking, fiscal affairs and infrastructure development, among others. The fourth finance ministerial meeting, to be held in New Delhi, will have finance minister P Chidambaram from the Indian side and Hyun Oh-seok, deputy prime minister and minister of strategy and finance, from South Korea. A finance ministry official said South Korea is seeking cooperation in the process for obtaining permission to establish branches of Korean commercial banks in India. Bilateral cooperation between supervisory agencies in the financial sector is also on the agenda. Sinhan Bank was the first Korean lender to set up a branch in India, in 1996, at Mumbai. In April 2012, Seoul-based Woori Bank had launched its first branch in India, at Chennai, to assist Korean companies in the country and to serve local clients. Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Daewoo and Posco are among the big Korean companies in India.
