Over breakfast at The Korea Society in New York, 70 officials from Standard Chartered Bank celebrated a new company holiday, Korea Day, to mark their acquisition of Korea First Bank. This historic gathering in New York, which included presentations by Donald P. Gregg, president and chairman of The Korea Society, and Jae-Hyo Kim, president of the North American Division of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, was the final observance of the bank's self-declared holiday. Standard Chartered locations throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe had held receptions earlier in the day. Although the British bank has had a presence in Korea since the 1880s, Standard Chartered acquired Korea First in January 2005 for $3.3 billion. James F. McCabe, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank of the Americas, noted that his bank was the first European financial institution invited to re-open there after the Korean War. He also noted with pride that Standard Chartered kept credit lines to its Korean customers open during the 1997 financial crisis even as other banks cut theirs. In integrating Korea First into its operations, Standard Charter gained three million retail banking customers and 65,000 business clients. Kim added that the environment for FDI in Korea has never been better. After the 1997 crisis the government liberalized FDI regulations: now 99.8-percent of the Korean economy is open to outside ownership. Since liberalization, $104 billion (US) in global capital has come into the country. Praising Standard Chartered's efforts to reach out to Korean consumers and the government, Kim called the deal a "showcase of very good foreign investment in Korea".