Standard Chartered First Bank Korea Ltd. shut down nearly a tenth of its operations in South Korea this last Sunday as a result of half of its workers going on strike on June 27th. The U.K. based bank, which has operated in Korea since 2005, is facing the real possibility of a complete cessation of business in that nation, much as Citigroup?s takeover of a provincial Korean bank had ended disastrously. Korean union leaders are not too optimistic about a compromising agreement. Transactions in South Korea account for 11% of SC?s annual revenue of $16 billion, or $1.6 billion.
See "Standard Chartered Closes 43 Branches in Korea Amid Strike", Bloomberg News, July 10, 2011