Korea Exchange Bank said Wednesday that it opened a branch in Istanbul, Turkey, becoming the first in the nation’s banking industry to enter the country.

The commercial bank said it planned to offer funding to Korea’s big firms operating in the city such as Hyundai Motor, Samsung Electronics and POSCO.

It is also pinning hopes on the free trade agreement between South Korea and Turkey, which took effect on May 1, 2013.

KEB chief executive Yun Yong-ro stressed that the lender had advanced into its first overseas market in five years since it tapped Ostrava, the Czech Republic, in 2008 when the bank was under management by U.S.-based Lone Star Funds.

KEB, a unit of Hana Financial Group, has set the target of raising its ratio of overseas earnings in its total net profit up to 15 percent by 2015. It has 53 business networks in 23 countries.

(kys@heraldcorp.com)