BNY Mellon bolsters Korea focus with new country executive

Korea has become a key part of BNY Mellon’s APAC strategy after it won a global custody mandate from the National Pension Service of Korea in late-2018.

By Joe Parsons

BNY Mellon has hired from Standard Chartered for its new country executive for Korea, which has become a key strategic focus for the global custodian in Asia-Pacific.

Hyon Joo Park will take on the role at the end of May, succeeding Sang Don Ji who will retire following three years with BNY Mellon. Ji also spent over 20 years at JP Morgan in various senior roles across corporate banking, treasury and securities services, and corporate treasury services.

In her role as country executive, Park will lead the team across BNY Mellon’s local services in Korea, and will report to David Cruikshank, BNY Mellon’s chairman of Asia-Pacific.

“Korea is a strategic market for BNY Mellon,” said Cruikshank. “With a presence in the country spanning more than 30 years, we have developed an immensely successful business servicing our institutional clients, and we continue to see opportunities to further expand our local capabilities in the years ahead.”

“Park will be at the heart of further enhancing our growth, with the depth and breadth of her financial services experience and understanding of Korean clients’ needs.”

Park previously spent 15 years at Standard Chartered, where she was most recently a senior advisor for its Korean business. She was also head of commercial banking and head of transaction banking in Korea.

Korea has become a key part of BNY Mellon’s strategy after it won a mandate from the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS), the world’s third largest pension fund, to provide global custody services for $25 billion of its assets invested in overseas fixed income markets.

It then opened a new branch in Jeonju, home to NPS, enabling it to work closer with the pension fund giant and help it tap deeper into new asset classes and geographies

«