Woori Bank (Hangul: 우리은행 Uri Eunhaeng) is a Korean multinational bank headquartered in Seoul. It is one of the four largest domestic banks in South Korea and is showing a strong presence not only for commercial banking but also for corporate finance in the Republic of Korea. It was originally founded in the 19th Century which it renamed and merged multiple times until it finally adopted its current name in 2002. Woori Bank is known the first South Korean bank to support web browsers other than Internet Explorer for online banking in Korea. As of 2020, Woori ranks 95 on the largest bank list in the world in terms of total assets which currently has 311,852 billion in USD as of the end of 2019. History 19th Century to 2000s The bank was founded back in the 19th century, in the year 1899, which then it was called 'Daehan Cheon-il Bank'. It renamed to 'Joseon Sangup Bank'(Joseon Commercial Bank) in 1911, then 'Commercial Bank of Korea' in the 1950s. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it merged with the former 'Hanil Bank' and 'Peace Bank' to become 'Hanvit Bank'. In 2001, it became a subsidiary of Woori Financial Group. The current name was adopted in 2002. Its Jongno branch is located in the Gwangtonggwan, which is considered the oldest continuously operating bank building in Korea. On March 5, 2001, the branch was registered as Seoul City's Historic Landmark. In 2014, after some amalgamation proceedings related to its parent company, Woori Bank absorbed Woori Financial Group. Efforts for Privatization Even though privatization has been ongoing since 2010 to recover public funds, there is no clear purchase hope and it is being inspected. With the government crying out to maximize the recovery of public funds, it has been constantly raised whether or not to sell the 51.4% stake in the government. The South Korean government is pursuing privatization based on the principle of maximizing public fund recovery, development of the financial industry, and early privatization, but the results are s. In low particular, the last government attempted to sell management rights and minority stakes separately but ended up in failure. This was because it was difficult to find a company that would acquire a 51.4% stake all at once. On the other hand, the current South Korean government is considering a selling method which basically involves dividing the stake into equal shares