Citibank Korea is likely to make its long-awaited announcement for its retail business exit plan on Aug. 26, after confirming the strategy at a scheduled board meeting, an industry source said Tuesday.

The South Korean subsidiary of the US-based global banking giant had initially said it would confirm the plan in July, but the decision-making process was delayed on apparent conflicts of interest among the firm, its potential bidders and unionists.

The firm is expected to decide whether it will sell-off the retail banking division as a whole or in pieces at a board meeting scheduled Aug. 26, the source said. It had added the option of completely pulling the division out of the market in stages, hinting that it would rather pursue a complete exit than carry out a subpar deal.

Citibank has said previously that more than four financial institutions have expressed interest in participating in the bid by submitting their letters of intent. The potential bidders have been pessimistic towards a plan of retaining all current employees, Citibank said in May. The bidders are also reportedly more interested in purchasing parts of the retail business such as wealth management instead of the entire division.

A list of potential bidders has yet to be disclosed.

In June, Citibank Korea suggested its workers take voluntary retirement as an option ahead of the planned sell-off. If the process kicks-off, it would mark the first of such move since 2014.

The firm’s labor union has strongly voiced its preference of the sell-off of the retail business as whole and warned that it would start a strike if the board chooses a potential bidder that chooses partial purchase.

Citibank Korea had some 3,500 employees, while its retail banking unit had about 2,500, as of end-2020.

Citibank opened its first branch in South Korea in 1967 and launched Citibank Korea in 2004.