Most Popular
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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S. Korea calls on Japan to confront history amid Yasukuni Shrine visit
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Yoon’s jailed mother-in-law excluded from latest parole list
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Hybe and Min Hee-jin, CEO of Hybe sublabel Ador, lock horns
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[Pressure points] Leggings in public: Fashion statement or social faux pas?
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Yoo Jae-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok team up in 'Whenever Possible'
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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Aging population to drive down Korea's housing prices from 2040: experts
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FTC increases punitive actions against anti-trust violations
The Fair Trade Commission took more punitive actions against anti-trust law violators in 2017 over the previous year, its data showed Monday.The data, submitted to ruling party legislator Park Yong-jin, indicated that the commission received 3,037 petitions last year and took administrative action on 2,877 of them. The corporate watchdog has six different levels of punitive measures, ranging between warning at the lowest level and punitive penalty fees and referral to the prosecution at the two
April 16, 2018
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Foreigners turn to net buyers of S. Korean stocks in March
Foreign investors turned to net buyers of South Korean stocks last month, data showed Monday.Offshore investors bought a net 123 billion won ($114.95 million) worth of local stocks in March, compared with net selling of 3.96 trillion won a month earlier, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service. They were net sellers in the main KOSPI market by offloading around 200 billion won, but their purchase of shares on the secondary KOSDAQ market offset the sell-off on the main bourse, the
April 16, 2018
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[Photo News] Ways to show regret
Samsung Securities CEO Koo Sung-hoon (front row, second from left), along with the company’s executive members and senior employees, write a letter of apology during an emergency workshop held Saturday in Seoul. The country’s top brokerage company came under fire recently for a dividend error in which non-existent shares worth 110 trillion won ($103 billion) were issued and some of the employees sold them off, causing the company’s shares to drop by double digits during th
April 15, 2018
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[Kosdaq Star] Fine dust woes boost Winix momentum
This is the 54th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed. Living with fine dust has become a new norm for South Koreans, with pedestrians wearing masks and outdoor sports events often being canceled due to poor air quality. Fine dust checking apps bring yet more scientific ways to accurately measure the levels, not to mention air purifiers becoming a requisite for indoors.But with the government struggling to deal with the dust problem and
April 15, 2018
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US does not designate S. Korea as currency manipulator
The United States declined to designate South Korea as a currency manipulator Friday but kept it on its list of countries to monitor.In a semiannual report to Congress, the Treasury Department said the currency practices of South Korea and five other countries required close attention but no trading partner met the criteria for a currency manipulator."The Treasury Department is working vigorously to ensure that trade is free, fair and reciprocal so American workers and companies can compete
April 14, 2018
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FSS chief urges asset management firms to secure retail investor trust
The Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kim Ki-sik on Friday stressed the need to secure retail investors’ trust in investment funds held by public, in a meeting with chief executives of asset management companies in South Korea, according to the watchdog. In a closed-door meeting with CEOs of 15 asset management companies that took place in headquarters of the Korea Financial Investment Association, Kim also called on the CEOs to boost the returns of their pension funds and strengthen inte
April 13, 2018
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Prices of crypto tokens fluctuate upon ICOs on Bithumb
The prices of cryptocurrency tokens severely fluctuated immediately after being listed on South Korea‘s cryptocurrency exchanges including Bithumb, Thursday.The price of encrypted tokens Mithril and Aelf surged 11,100 percent and 90 percent, respectively, within 30 minutes after Bithumb announced the listing of the tokens at 6 p.m. Thursday. The gains also immediately evaporated. Upon the initial coin offering at 6 p.m. Thursday, Mithrill traded at 250 won (23 cents) per token on Bithumb.
April 13, 2018
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Seoul to discuss currency market intervention report with IMF next week
South Korea will discuss currency market-related issues, such as how to reveal records of its market interventions, with the International Monetary Fund next week, the country's chief economic policymaker said Friday.Seoul's finance ministry said earlier that South Korea is considering disclosing details of its interventions in the foreign exchange market in a move to boost transparency and clear itself of suspicion of influencing exchange rates.South Korea's financial authorities have persisten
April 13, 2018
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FSS investigates nonbanking firms’ hiring irregularities
The Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday launched inspections targeting nonbanking financial companies in South Korea, following its probe on the banking industry. The targets of the probe include 25 life insurance companies, 31 damage insurance firms and eight card companies, as well as savings banks and securities firms.The FSS will reportedly look into evidence of gender discrimination in the employment process and personal ties between applicants and high-ranking officials of companies.
April 12, 2018
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Securities firms fined for failing to identify Samsung chairman assets
South Korea‘s four securities firms have been slapped with a combined 3.4 billion won ($3.2 million) in fines for their failure to identify and verify assets owned by bedridden Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee under false-name accounts, watchdogs said Thursday.The amount of the fine equals 55 percent of face value of Lee’s financial assets under the accounts not owned by the chairman, which came to 6.2 billion won as of August 1993. The four companies -- Mirae Asset Daewoo, S
April 12, 2018
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[Herald Interview] Banksalad relieves financial information overload
The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 13th installment. - Ed.Despite having easy access to thousands of financial products in South Korea, as one of the world’s most wired countries, consumers often find most of them irrelevant and largely fail to figure out which offers the biggest financial advantage. In a bid to simplify the myriad of choices, former owner of a street food vender Kim Tae-hoon co-foun
April 12, 2018
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Energi Mine enters Korea, seeks local partnership
Energi Mine, a UK-based energy efficiency rewards blockchain platform, has entered the South Korean market in efforts to gather examples of how its blockchain business can be applied to the real world economy, the company said in a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday.By incentivizing people with its digital token dubbed Energi Token when they contribute to reducing energy, such as by taking public transportation or purchasing energy efficient home appliances, the company said it aims to decen
April 11, 2018
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[Newsmaker] Key pension funds pull plug on Samsung Securities
The National Pension Service ceased trading with Samsung Securities in the wake of the latest dividend error that revealed a blind spot in the brokerage system, officials said Tuesday.“Due to the serious problem in Samsung Securities’ stock trading stability, we stopped all direct stock trading on Monday,” said an official of the pension service.“Restrictions in other sectors such as trust management will be decided later in consideration of the financial authorities&rsqu
April 10, 2018
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Payoneer launches Korea office, targeting SMEs selling globally via online marketplaces
Payoneer, a New York-based payments processing company, officially launched a new South Korea office Tuesday, targeting small and midsized businesses here that sell their products globally via online marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba. “Launching Payoneer’s office in Korea shouldn’t come as a surprise. Korea is a fast-growing economy and the seventh biggest e-commerce market in the world,” said Payoneer’s General Manager for Direct Business Eyal Moldovan during a
April 10, 2018
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Watchdog chides Samsung Securities for internal control void, begins inspection
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service on Monday began an investigation into Samsung Securities over it lacking internal controls to detect or correct a computational input error that caused slipshod dividend payments over 40,000 times larger than intended.The watchdog denounced the firm for its “severe” systemic flaw that enabled erroneously created virtual stocks to be traded like real assets.At a press conference Monday to unveil its plans to look into the fourth-larges
April 9, 2018
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President appoints BOK chief to second term
President Moon Jae-in appointed the incumbent head of the central bank to a second term Monday, stressing the importance of stability in monetary policy.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol was appointed to his second four-year term in a ceremony held at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.Lee's appointment came about a month after the president decided to retain the top central banker for a second term.The 65-year-old is the first person in more than four decades to have been appointed to a second
April 9, 2018
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Labor union to demand Korean banks close during lunch
A labor union of South Korean bank employees is demanding bank branches here close during lunchtime in forthcoming collective bargaining talks. The Korean Financial Industry Union was reported as saying Monday the proposal was designed to guarantee bank clerks get an hourlong lunch break. The KFIU is an umbrella group representing labor unions of over 30 financial institutions, including local commercial banks, provincial banks and co-ops.Korean banks, with few exceptions, are open to cust
April 9, 2018
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Samsung Securities fiasco exposes stock trading loophole
A South Korean brokerage mistakenly paying 1,000 shares in dividends instead of 1,000 won ($0.93) due to a computational error Friday has exposed a major loophole in the nation’s stock trading system, prompting immediate intervention by regulators.Starting Monday, the Financial Supervisory Service will launch an inspection into internal system flaws at Samsung Securities, the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage, where the incident happened last week, officials said Sunday. The authorit
April 8, 2018
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Korean banks' real interest rate in minus territory: BOK
Real interest rates offered by South Korean lenders fell into minus territory last year, with people effectively losing money if they make deposits, central bank data showed Sunday.The Bank of Korea said the average annual interest rate for savings accounts stood at 1.56 percent, compared with inflation that reached 1.9 percent, resulting in a real interest rate of minus 0.34 percent.It said average interest rate numbers for 2017 were the second lowest in history and marked the first time in six
April 8, 2018
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Arrest warrants sought for cryptocurrency executives for fraud, embezzlement
Prosecutors on Friday requested court warrants to arrest four executives of two cryptocurrency exchanges on fraud and embezzlement charges.Kim Ik-hwan, head of Coinnest, and three others are accused of pocketing billions of won from clients' accounts by transferring the money to their own private accounts, according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. A court review on the request will be held early Friday, it said. They were detained for questioning Wednesday. Prosecutors
April 6, 2018