South Korea’s large financial companies are in agony over President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s election pledge to relocate several bank headquarters outside Seoul.

In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s presidential election, then-conservative candidate Yoon made a pledge in both January and earlier this month to relocate the state-run Korea Development Bank to the nation’s southern port city of Busan. He added at a campaign rally in Busan last week that he would make efforts to “help several banks starting with KDB to relocate their headquarters and settle in Busan.”

But Yoon’s pledge was soon met with protest from unionists under nine major banks here, claiming that relocating the banks’ headquarters outside Seoul would only hinder their growth. Unionized members of the three state-run banks -- Industrial Bank of Korea, KDB and Export-Import Bank of Korea -- and four major commercial banks -- KB Kookmin, Woori, Hana and NongHyup -- gathered in Yeouido on Monday for the protest. Members from foreign banks operating here -- Standard Chartered Bank Korea and Citibank Korea -- also joined the move.

“Yoon’s pledge to relocate a foreign bank that deals with global companies to Busan shows his ignorance towards the financial sector,” Jin Chang-geun, head of the Citibank Korea labor union said at the rally.

In a joint statement, they said that the relocation of the banks would lead to a “collapse” in the system and the network they have built over decades in the nation’s capital.

Headquarters of some state-run institutions, including the nation’s sole bourse operator Korea Exchange and the Korea Asset Management Corp. have relocated to Busan since 2009, following the city’s rebranding as a financial hub. The city is currently building a global finance center, aimed at attracting global financiers on a 10,293 square-meter site that is set to be completed by 2025.

However, as observed in the KRX’s relocation, its Seoul office continues to deal with the bourse operator’s key tasks, reflecting the government’s failure to actually “relocate” the institution outside the capital.