Most Popular
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Koreans, Americans differ on prestigious jobs: lawmakers vs. firefighters
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Disgraced ex-minister rises as major threat to ruling party
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Only half of S. Koreans willing to marry: data
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Yoon calls for dialogue, trust from medical community
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Summit for Democracy opens in Seoul in mega-election year
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Jungkook of BTS updates life in Army
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Med professors to resign starting March 25
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Ryu Joon-yeol, Han So-hee confirm dating since early 2024
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Leaders call for action against threats to democracy posed by AI
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Asiana Airlines wins data transfer certification in China
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Govt. to tighten reporting rules on financial transactions
The government has proposed a bill to toughen the rules for reporting on certain financial transactions, the country's top financial regulator said Sunday.The move is part of Seoul's ongoing efforts to better ferret out financial crime and money laundering activities, the Financial Services Commission said.South Korea has tightened regulations on anti-money laundering and possible terrorism financing, targeting some loopholes that may be used by people to conceal their wealth. The FSC said in a
June 3, 2018
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Lowest income households' interest burden surges 33% in Q1: data
The interest payment burden on South Korea's lowest income households surged 33 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2018 amid a drop in their earnings, official data showed Sunday.According to Statistics Korea, households with two members in the bottom 20 percent earnings bracket earned 8 percent less in the January-March period while the country's interest rates moved upwards. Such developments are exacerbating the already tough debt service obligations of these households.Lower income and
June 3, 2018
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Regulator wraps up review of Samsung BioLogics' suspected accounting breach
The financial regulator has wrapped up its review of a regulatory probe into whether Samsung BioLogics Co. violated accounting rules, officials said Friday.Details of the review were not disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement, but the review apparently failed to reach a consensus as the Financial Services Commission said there were some "majority and minority opinions" about the case.The review came after financial authorities gave a preliminary notice earlier last month to Samsu
June 1, 2018
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Banks hold breath as recruitment scandals intensify
The banking industry here has been stirred up following the arrest warrant sought by the prosecution against KEB Hana Bank Chief Executive Officer Ham Young-joo last Wednesday, in the latest development of the recruitment scandal. Ham will face a hearing on the arrest warrant on Friday.If the court decides to issue the warrant, Ham will become the first incumbent head of a South Korean commercial bank to be under arrest on charges of hiring irregularities. The prosecution views a banking f
May 31, 2018
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BOK denies allegation of inflating export volume
The Bank of Korea on Thursday rebuked claims by a local news report that the central bank “inflated” the nation’s export volume over the past eight years for the sake of a “rosier” export economy outlook.On Wednesday evening, local television channel MBC claimed that the nation’s balance of payments has been exaggerated since 2010, when the Bank of Korea began applying new International Monetary Fund standards to its statistics. The chronic trade deficit in t
May 31, 2018
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Prosecution seeks arrest warrant for chief of KEB Hana Bank
The prosecution has filed for an arrest warrant for KEB Hana Bank chief Ham Young-joo over job-related irregularities, prosecution officials said Wednesday.The request for a warrant came nearly two months after the financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said its own investigation has found at least 32 cases of alleged hiring irregularities at the bank.In 2013, the bank hired 229 college graduates, 32 of whom were hired after allegedly receiving recommendations from the bank
May 30, 2018
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Samsung's financial units to sell off Electronics shares on breach woes
Two financial units under the Samsung conglomerate -- Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance -- unveiled plans Wednesday to sell off their Samsung Electronics shares by Thursday.Samsung Life Insurance, holding 8.23 percent of Samsung Electronics as of Wednesday, will sell off some 23 million shares worth 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion), so that its ownership ratio will decrease to 7.92 percent, its regulatory filing showed.Also, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will se
May 30, 2018
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Mirae Asset’s outbound strategy pays out in global market
From its very early years, South Korea’s leading asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments has kept ahead of its competitors in expanding business overseas -- a strategy turning out to be rewarding in recent years.The company has launched an asset management firm in Vietnam this year in partnership with the Southeast Asian country’s State Capital Investment Corporation, expanding its business leverage in the area, according to officials.“Based on our research capacit
May 30, 2018
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Samsung Securities survey indicates HNWI's inclination for foreign investment
High-net-worth-individuals who subscribe to private banking products were more inclined to invest in foreign countries than domestic, showed a survey by Korea’s brokerage house Samsung Securities. The survey was based on responses by 100 private bankers in Samsung Securities. The respondents‘ answers reflected thoughts of HNWIs -- who hold over 100 million won ($92,700) in assets individually -- according to the company. Seventy-eight of the respondents said their HNWIs picked foreig
May 29, 2018
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QARASoft launches AI-powered app beta for financial market forecasting
South Korean financial technology startup QARASoft on Tuesday launched a beta version of an artificial intelligence-powered application to forecast financial market movements. Dubbed “Kosho,” the robo adviser app is expected to offer a prediction for the following week, based on over 400 million financial market indicators for the last 30 years, accumulated and analyzed by QARASoft’s deep learning engine, Market Dreamer. Market Dreamer offers quantitative analyses for stock mar
May 29, 2018
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Regulators to cross check foreign stock transactions
South Korea’s financial regulator unveiled Monday plans to create an electronic system to track real-time foreign stock transactions and changes in outstanding stocks, in order to ramp up oversight of securities trade here amid growing public distrust in the current system and hostility against short selling. Through a newly created monitoring system, the Korea Securities Depository would cross-check the volume of outstanding stocks reported by the custodian bank of each foreign investor,
May 28, 2018
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SC offers maximum 1.7% rate to investors looking to park cash
Amid widening market volatility on looming rate hikes at home and abroad, investors have been taking to money market accounts to park their cash. One of such accounts by Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, offer investors not only a place to park cash, but also interest rate up to 1.7 percent a year before tax. South Korea’s current base rate is 1.5 percent.Subscribers to the bank’s “SC My Zoom Account” are offered a maximum of
May 28, 2018
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Head office of Samsung Securities raided in 'fat-finger' probe
Prosecutors raided the headquarters of Samsung Securities Co. on Monday as part of an investigation into last month's massive dividend error by an accidental stock issuance worth over 110 trillion won ($100 billion). Investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office were sent to search the premises in Seocho, southern Seoul, and four other branches to confiscate evidence, including documents and digital files, the office said. Prosecutors are investigating the stock blunder
May 28, 2018
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Banks to adopt tougher mortgage rules in H2
All banks will be required to adopt tougher guidelines for mortgage loans in the second half of this year, officials said Sunday, in accordance with the government's latest push to curb household debt. The decision was made last Friday at a meeting of financial regulators, senior bank executives and other financial institutions, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.Currently, people's ability to repay home mortgages is calculated on the basis of their home mortgage principal and
May 27, 2018
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Banks to adopt unified authentication certificate in July
South Korean banks are planning to adopt a unified authentication certificate for online transactions in July to enhance customers' convenience, industry people said Sunday.Eighteen members of the Korean Federation of Banks plan to introduce the unified certificate named BankSign in July to allow customers to make online financial transactions using their PIN numbers, secret patterns or fingerprints, a bank official said.Customers can download the BankSign from each bank's application and use it
May 27, 2018
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[Herald Interview] Crypto frenzy to give way to market sophistication
Four years have passed since Alex Tapscott, then a Canadian investment banker, published a seminal white paper that pictures bitcoin blockchain’s potential financial use free of intermediaries.The 32-page paper titled “A Bitcoin Governance Network” -- generated upon the request of his father, the author of “Wikinomics” Don Tapscott -- laid the foundation for the 368-page “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and
May 25, 2018
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Stock market faces limited impact from summit collapse
South Korea‘s stock markets erased their morning loss in the afternoon Friday, dwarfing investor concerns about US President Donald Trump’s announcement to cancel a planned summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in June. In Friday closing, the top-tier stock market Kospi edged down 0.2 percent from Thursday‘s close, narrowing down 0.9 percent loss in early morning trade. The tech-heavy Kosdaq capped its loss to 0.6 percent, from 1.6 percent in the morning. On Kospi, foreign
May 25, 2018
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Cancellation of US-NK summit expected to have limited impact on S. Korean market: BOK
The recent cancellation of the US-North Korea summit will likely have a limited impact on the South Korean financial market, a senior central bank official said Friday.The Bank of Korea held an emergency meeting at 8:30 a.m., hours after US President Donald Trump released his letter to scrap the planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore.The closed-door meeting was chaired by Yoon Myun-shik, the senior deputy governor of the BOK, with several senior officials at
May 25, 2018
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BOK freezes key rate on emerging market woes
South Korea’s central bank kept the interest rate steady at 1.5 percent for six straight months in a unanimous board decision Thursday, citing external uncertainties due to an upshot in capital influx and currency woes from emerging markets.Despite relatively solid economic growth at home and abroad, the lingering uncertainties and low inflationary pressure on the demand side here led to the “accommodative monetary policy stance,” according to the seven-member Monetary Policy B
May 24, 2018
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CME sanctions Hana Financial Investment's derivatives trading
US exchange operator CME Group has immediately suspended South Korea’s brokerage Hana Financial Investment‘s access to electronic trading or clearing platforms and markets run by the US derivatives exchange operator.Following the disciplinary action effective starting Tuesday, customers of the Korean securities firm are being banned from trading futures or options on CME Group’s platforms including Globex, using Hana‘s home trading system. The access will be denied for 60
May 23, 2018