State-run Industrial Bank of Korea said Friday that its first-quarter net profit jumped 15.9 percent from a year earlier on increased interest income and gains from asset sales. Net profit for the three months ending March 31 came to 437.7 billion won ($386 million) on a consolidated basis, compared to 377.7 billion won a year earlier, the lender said in a regulatory filing. The figure includes...

South Korea is set to impose anti-dumping duties on ferroalloy imported from Vietnam, India and Ukraine, the trade commission here said Friday. After a preliminary examination, the Korea Trade Commission said it will recommend the finance ministry levy punitive duties of 6.08-32.32 percent on ferro-silico-manganese imported from the three countries, for underselling South Korean products and cau...

South Korea's finance minister held a meeting with the president of the World Bank Group to discuss ways to expand the country's participation in the organization, the ministry here said Friday. Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho met with WBG President Jim Yong Kim in Washington on Thursday (local time) on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting. The gather...

Jang Hong-suk got a credit line for a deposit to buy an apartment. All he did was download an app on his smartphone and open an account before applying for a loan. It took about 20 minutes before Jang got approval for the loan from K-Bank, South Korea's first Internet-only bank. "I opened a bank account with a 50 million won ($44,000) overdraft line of credit on my way home from work," said the...

South Korean stocks extended gains late Wednesday morning on a rebound in tech and telecom stocks. The won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index advanced 18.45 points, or 0.86 percent, to 2,167.60 as of 11:20 a.m. Foreign and institutional investors bought a combined 123.4 billion won ($108 million) worth of stocks, while individuals shed 115.26 billion won...

South Korea increased fiscal spending on infrastructure-building projects in the first three months of the year contributed to the creation of more jobs, the finance ministry here said Friday. The government spent 14.9 trillion won carrying out social overhead capital projects in the January-March period, up 200 million won from its earlier plan, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance...

South Korea's exports jumped 28.4 percent in the first 20 days of April from a year earlier on robust overseas demand for semiconductors and cars, customs data showed Friday. Total outbound shipments reached $30.4 billion during the cited period, up from $23.7 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The increase was led by a 5...

South Korea's top financial regulator on Friday called for heads of banks to play a "responsible role" in normalizing Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., as the bailout plan for the troubled shipbuilder was cleared by its stakeholders. Zhin Woong-seob, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, also asked banks not to aggressively collect debt from shipbuilders and their subcontrac...

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street and ahead of major companies' first-quarter earnings reports. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 12.45 points, or 0.58 percent, to 2,161.60 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.85 percent on strong corporate earnings result...

KB Financial Group, the second-largest banking group in net assets, posted 870.1 billion won ($763.7 million) of net profit in the first quarter, a 59.7 percent rise on-year, according to the group’s earnings report Thursday. The net profit of the holding company, which operates financial units including Kookmin Bank, the second-largest commercial lender in market cap, skyrocketed 91.7 percent c...

The Financial Services Commission of Korea announced Thursday it would ease regulations for lenders in streamlining the debt restructuring of financially troubled firms. By revising the enforcement ordinance of the Financial Holding Companies Act, lenders will be more easily able to exclude debt-ridden firms under their receiverships from their subsidiaries in the process of converting debt into...

South Korean stocks closed higher Thursday as institutions scooped up stocks on bargain hunting. The won rose against the dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 10.75 points, or 0.50 percent, to close at 2,149.15. Trade volume was moderate at 262.01 million shares worth 4.91 trillion won ($4.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 445 to 329. Institutional and foreign...

Shinhan Financial Group said its net profit rose to 997.1 billion won in the first quarter this year, a 29 percent gain from a year earlier, mainly due to improved net interest margins and reduced general and administrative expenses. The nation’s largest financials having banking, credit card, insurance and other financial units said its first-quarter net profit this year was the largest since t...

More people moved out of Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area than those who moved in for the first time since the relevant tally was gathered in 1971, Statistics Korea said Thursday. The number of people who were residing in the area that they were born in tended to decline until they were in their 50s, and started increasing as they turned 60, the data also showed. The agency said that...

South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday it planned to allow borrowers who cannot repay debts due to a job loss or the death of a relative, to suspend the repayment of the principal for up to three years. The Financial Services Commission announced a set of measures to help alleviate the debt burdens of vulnerable households after releasing new data on household debt. The growth of house...