State-owned commercial bank; designated by the U.N. Security Council on April 24, 2009 pursuant to resolution 1718 (2006), requiring (with some exceptions) states to freeze immediately funds, financial assets and economic resources on their territories that are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the entity, and to ensure that funds, financial assets and economic resources are prevented from being made available by their nationals or by persons or entities within their territories, to or for the benefit of the entity; described by the U.N. Security Council as the "main DPRK financial entity for sales of conventional arms, ballistic missiles, and goods related to the assembly and manufacture of such weapons;" listed by the European Union on May 13, 2009, pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 (2006), as an entity whose funds and economic resources, and those it owns, holds or controls, must be frozen by E.U. member states; listed by the Japanese government in 2009 as an entity of concern for proliferation relating to missiles and biological, chemical and nuclear weapons; sanctioned by the Japanese government on September 19, 2006 under Japan's Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law, targeting remittances and transfers of financial assets to North Korea; sanctioned by the Australian government on September 19, 2006 under its Banking (Reserve Exchange) Regulations 1959, prohibiting the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of a sanctioned entity without the prior approval of the Reserve Bank of Australia; added in June 2005 to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, pursuant to its designation by the June 2005 U.S. Executive Order 13382, which targeted those who engage in or support the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems, and which froze all of Tanchon Commercial Bank's assets held in the United States or by U.S. persons and organizations, thereby prohibiting any transactions involving these assets.

Financial arm for Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), playing a key role in financing the sales of ballistic missiles, including to Iran's Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury; since 2005, has maintained an active relationship with various branches of Iran's Bank Sepah, and the United States "has reason to believe that the Tanchon-Bank Sepah relationship has been used for North Korea-Iran proliferation-related transactions."

Has received assistance from Hong Kong Electronics in transferring proliferation-related funds, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury; funds official weapons transactions of the North Korean government's Second Economic Commission (a.k.a. Second Economic Committee); listed as managing foreign transaction payments for North Korea's Yongaksan Trading Co. (also known as Korea Lyongaksan General Trading Corporation), which is allegedly responsible for exporting missiles, according to testimony before the U.S. Senate by Ko Young-hwan, a North Korean defector, who claimed to be a former official at the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former first secretary at the North Korean Embassy in Congo.

Name changed to Tanchon Commercial Bank after Samchon-ri bank "merged into" Changgwang Credit Bank on November 1, 2003; name changed to Changgwang Credit Bank from Korea Changgwang Credit Bank Corp. on January 1, 1998; has 172 branches throughout North Korea; managing director, Maeng Pok Sik; president, Kye Chang Ho; chairman, Kim Chol Hwan; established and incorporated in 1983.