• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.681-701
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• 2009

There were three banks that had the head office in Busan since 1912, Gyong-Nam Bank, Dong-Rae Bank and Busan Commercial Bank. This article tries to catch hold of the characteristics of the establishment and management, and the merging process of three banks. The main stockholders and managers made use of the money of the banks for the enterprises that they operated. Gyong-Nam Bank was combined with Dae-Gu Bank in 1928 to be Dae-Gu Commercial & Industrial Bank. The revised bank ordinance of 1928 regulated that the head office banks had to meet the requirement of the paid-in capital, 2 million yen. Not meeting such an excessive requirement, Dong-Rae Bank was amalgamated to Ho-Nam Bank of Gwang-Ju in 1933. Busan Commercial Bank was absorbed in Cho-Sun Commercial Bank in 1935 because it couldn't get back huge loan from a company which belonged to its three main stockholders. Japanese were already the main stockholders of Cho-Sun Commercial Bank from the beginning of 1920s. The banking agencies were not able to deal with the economic fluctuations effectively, and didn't have any economic organization in support of their profit. Cho-Sun Government-General forced the head office banks to be merged to control the colonial economy.