Woori Bank Brand Guidelines: Daehan Cheonil Bank 1899, Hanvit & a 2002 Rename

An 1899 bank funded with Korean capital.

Woori Bank dates its history to 30 January 1899, when Daehan Cheonil Bank was founded in Seoul under the Korean Empire. Korean Wikipedia says Emperor Gojong supplied capital and that senior officials and merchants led the founding; The Korea Herald, citing the bank’s own history report, wrote in 2019 that it was the first corporation and bank funded entirely by Korean investors. The name “Cheonil” means roughly “the first bank under heaven,” according to Korean Wikipedia and the newspaper Cheonji Ilbo. Its first branch opened in Incheon in May 1899.

The Herald reported that the young bank lent to Korean, Chinese and Japanese merchants while also taking deposits, at a time when Japanese lenders such as Dai-Ichi Bank had branched into Korea. Its account books survive. In November 2026 Woori Bank and Kookmin University held an academic conference at the bank’s Seoul headquarters on those ledgers, which were kept in Songdo Sagae Chibubeop, the double-entry bookkeeping method of Gaeseong merchants, Chosunbiz reported; the bank plans to publish a research volume on the findings.

Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910. Korean Wikipedia records that in 1911 the bank dropped “Daehan” from its name and became Joseon Commercial Bank; that in 1915 it became the treasury bank for the Gyeongseong city government, the forerunner of Seoul’s; and that it absorbed Daedong Bank in 1925 and Samnam Bank in 1928. The same source dates the other branch of the family, Joseon Trust, to 1932. Those are corporate dates only. The sources used for this guide do not say how the bank operated during the years of Japanese rule, 1910–1945.

After liberation the bank kept the Joseon name until 1950, when it became Korea Commercial Bank. The Herald wrote that it sent staff to banks in the United States, Europe and Japan to study their systems, started a currency-exchange business in 1967 and opened a branch in Tokyo in 1968, which the paper described as the first overseas branch opened by a Korean lender.

Hanvit, then Woori.

Joseon Trust became a trust bank in 1946, Korea Heungup Bank in 1954 and Hanil Bank in 1960, according to Korean Wikipedia. Korea Commercial Bank and Hanil Bank were both caught up in the 1997 Asian financial crisis. English Wikipedia says the two merged as Hanvit Bank, launched in January 1999, alongside a public capital injection that made the Korean government the dominant shareholder. Hanvit absorbed Peace Bank in December 2001.

The present name came in May 2002. “Woori” means “we” or “our” in Korean. Cheonji Ilbo reported in November 2026 that the name had been considered at the time of the 1999 merger but that financial authorities reportedly objected because it was an everyday word, so the bank launched as Hanvit first. A holding company, Woori Financial Group, was formed in 2001; Woori Bank absorbed it in November 2014 as part of a share-sale process, and a new Woori Financial Group holding company was launched in January 2019, Korean Wikipedia says.

The state then sold down its stake. English Wikipedia, citing The Korea Herald and UNCTAD, says the government sold a block of shares in November 2016, another in November 2021 and its remaining holding in March 2024. Cheonji Ilbo described 2024 as the close of a 26-year process of public-fund recovery.

Today Woori Bank is a subsidiary of Woori Financial Group, headquartered in Jung-gu, Seoul. English Wikipedia describes it as one of the four largest domestic banks in South Korea, with particular strength in commercial banking and corporate finance. Its overseas network includes Woori America Bank and Indonesia’s Woori Saudara Bank, and in August 2025 it opened a branch in Austin, Texas, English Wikipedia says.

How Korean banks present themselves.

South Korean banks tend to present themselves with short names and simple symbols. Many trade under initials or a single word, and they usually show the Hangul name and the Latin name side by side, so that the same mark works on a branch sign in Seoul, an overseas office and a phone screen. Bright, clean colours are common across the sector, from yellows and warm tones to teals, blues and greens, set against plenty of white space.

Several banks have built their identities beyond a logo. KB Financial Group publishes its own typeface family and a cast of mascots, the Star Friends, which appear in its advertising; Hana Financial Group has its own typeface too, and offers it free to the public. Character mascots, house fonts and short slogans give these brands a friendly face that carries across advertising, apps and branches.

Much of the customer’s contact now happens on a phone. Bank websites and apps tend to be minimal and app-first, with pages organised around deposits and savings, loans, mobile banking, overseas transfers and digital wallets, and many services that once needed a branch visit are offered online. Banks also use their apps for things beyond banking, such as event ticketing or tie-ins with sports clubs.

Sport and publishing round out the picture. Korean banks sponsor athletes, teams and running and golf events, and some produce branded dramas and web series for online audiences. Their annual reports and sustainability reports are published in Korean and English and set out each group’s structure, history and identity, which makes them a useful starting point for anyone studying how these brands are built.

An old bank with an everyday name.

Woori leans on its age. In December 2025 it reopened its banking-history museum in the basement of its headquarters as Woori1899, a name chosen by employee vote that joins the brand to the founding year, The Asia Business Daily reported. The museum first opened in 2004, and the paper called it the country’s first museum devoted to banking history. The renovated hall centres on a 360-degree LED installation, the “Woori Time Sphere,” and shows the Daehan Cheonil Bank founding petition, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government has designated a cultural property, alongside a model of Gwangtonggwan.

Gwangtonggwan is the bank’s working heritage. The building houses the Jongno branch, now Woori Bank Jongno Financial Center; English Wikipedia, citing Kyunghyang Shinmun, says it is considered the oldest continuously operating bank building in Korea, and it was registered as a Seoul historic landmark in March 2001.

The digital side came later. Korean Wikipedia records that the bank launched WiBee Bank, a mobile-only banking service, in May 2015, and The Korea Herald also dated the bank’s mobile service to 2015. At the Woori1899 opening, the Asia Business Daily reported, children received gifts from “Wibee Santa.” The bank also runs an art competition, Woori Art Con, whose award-winning works filled the museum’s first special exhibition. In April 2025 it launched a budget mobile phone brand, Woori WON Mobile, Korean Wikipedia says.

For a design guide, Woori Bank shows how a lender with a long, renamed history can make that history a brand asset: a founding year in a museum name, a working heritage building and an everyday word as the name. Compare Hana Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, two other large Seoul banks. For this guide we use a clear morning blue, a deep harbour navy and warm ledger-paper tones with a clean sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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