SEOUL, KOREA - Woori Investment & Securities has finalized its list of employees to leave the company under a voluntary retirement program. The company said on May 28 that the total number of applicants to the program was 412, or 13.8 percent of all 2,973 employees. This is slightly higher than the number earlier projected at 300 to 400.

 

As for severance package, the company will pay a total of 240 million won to senior manager-level applicants with more than 20 years of service, including 24 months of salaries and post-retirement living expenses. To deputy senior manager-level applicants, the company will pay about 220 million won for compensation.

 

Earlier, NH Nonghyup Securities said it has closed the list of those who have applied for the voluntary retirement program. The total number was 196, or 23.0 percent of the total payroll of 858.

 

The total number of those who will be downsized at Woori Investment NH Nonghyup would be 608. In April, Samsung Securities said it would cut about 500 employees, or 20 percent of all workforce. In December last year, Hanwha Investment & Securities had laid off 337 employees. The securities industry sees this wave of restructuring as analogous to that in 1990s Japan when as many as 147 securities firms were closed for business out of 272.