South Korea’s major retail bank Hana Bank is sending bankers for IT retraining at elite school of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to survive in the digital competition.

According to multiple sources from the financial industry on Monday, Hana Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with KAIST to develop Digital Warrior Program for employee retraining. The lender has already picked 40 employees for the bi-annual program.

Hana Bank employees, mainly in their 20s and 30s, will take online courses that include classes on basic programming while carrying out their day-to-day work for a month. The online training will be managed through Digital Transformation (DT) University the bank launched last year to strengthen digital capabilities.

After basic training, bankers will go through a six-month computer engineering course at KAIST. Curriculum includes Introduction to Algorithm, Introduction to software engineering, and Introduction to Database, mostly the mandatory courses for computer engineering majors at the university.

After completing the course, the staff will also be touring overseas financial institutions with superiority in digital finance. They will be relocated to IT division upon return.

Digital and computation literacy has become a must for bankers amid digital environment, a bank source said.

Other traditional lenders are also striving to turn more digital-focused.

Woori Financial has opened an industry-academia education program at KAIST in March to train IT talents big data and artificial intelligence courses. Shinhan Financial also sends employees to Korea University for master’s in financial engineering.

By Kim Yoo-shin and Lee Eun-joo

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