A foreign investor group of South Korea-based Kyobo Life Insurance is in hot water as its plan to exit from the insurer faces a setback after an indictment of its officials, while its demand for an initial public offering by Kyobo Life since 2012 remains unfulfilled to this day. Key officials of the international investor group, led by Hong Kong-based private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, and Seoul-based accounting firm Deloitte Anjin have been indicted by Korean prosecutors for alleged

Upbit, a South Korean digital asset exchange, said Thursday that its Thailand unit was up and running after receiving the necessary licenses from regulators. The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission recently granted approval for Upbit Thailand in four business areas -- digital asset exchange and brokerage and digital token exchange and brokerage -- with Upbit Thailand being fully operational as of Wednesday, the company said. “It is a very exciting time for the digital asset indu

Viva Republica, the operator of leading finance app Toss, on Wednesday announced that it plans to add 330 new staff in the first quarter ahead of the launch of an internet-only bank and an online securities arm later this year. The latest hunt for talent comes as the 6-year-old startup prepares to become the country‘s third internet-only bank, expected to launch in July, and to kick off the mobile securities firm Toss Securities next month. With five units under its umbrella, including f

Seoul-based investment firm KB Asset Management said Wednesday it had closed a 220 billion won ($200 million) bond-investing private fund in order to embolden its focus on environmental, social and governance factors. The new private fund -- the largest of its kind in Korea -- will deploy at least 70 percent of its cash to certified South Korean green, social and sustainability bonds or issuers that received integrated ESG rating of “B+” or higher from evaluator Korea Corporate Gove

US-based investment adviser Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb has unloaded a 5.5 percent stake in Korea‘s brokerage house Shinyoung Securities, a regulatory filing showed Tuesday. The New York-based firm’s sales proceeds came to 30.4 billion won ($27.6 million) following decades of transactions involving its mutual funds, according to the filing. Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb’s ownership was reduced to 2.11 percent as of December 2020, making it no longer obliged to disclose itse

A group of South Korean lenders pledged on Tuesday to earmark a combined $3 billion over the next five years to spur global investment into local semiconductor maker SK hynix as part of the nation’s bid to shore up growth of futuristic technology. South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission, said the lenders’ agreement with the country’s second-largest semiconductor chip manufacturer will pave the way for future economic development as the c

Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung has urged the group‘s subsidiaries to gear up for business innovation this year by benchmarking global tech giants Amazon and Google, officials said Sunday.  “Just as the innovative tech behemoths Amazon and Google did, let’s seek innovation with a mindset like it’s always day one, to get back to the basics and start work with a renewed mind and to surprise the market by achieving a groundbreaking performance,” s

RCI Financial Services Korea, an affiliate of Renault Samsung Motors, launched a mobile app which enables customers to apply for loans remotely after signing a contract to buy a car, the firm said Friday. The new Renault Finance app is developed to apply and complete loan application without visiting dealer shops through a simple verification process online. Evaluation on loan applicants will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a broader range of customers including foreigners residing h

France-based BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding is set to divest its entire stake in its South Korean joint venture with Shinhan Financial Group, the Korean banking group said Friday. Shinhan BNP Paribas, a 65:35 joint venture of Korea‘s second-largest banking group by total assets and the French counterpart, will become a fully owned subsidiary of Shinhan, as the former has decided to buy out the 35 percent stake from its partner. The two companies inked an agreement on Dec. 30, 202

President Moon Jae-in will invest a total of 50 million won ($45,600) into new major funds intended to support the government's Korean-version New Deal project, his office said Wednesday. The president plans to sign up on Friday for five funds to be operated by as many local asset managers, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. Moon will use profits from his investment in a separate fund that was created in 2019 to foster South Korea's parts and materials production industry agai

South Korea‘s public pension scheme, the National Pension Service, pledged Wednesday to add resilience to its capital deployment to overseas assets through a structural reorganization. Through the reshuffle, the NPS Investment Management will split its global public market division in two -- with one part dedicated to investing in foreign stocks and another in foreign fixed-income products. The move will allow the NPSIM to increase the in-house investment of foreign listed stocks and its

South Korea's money supply continued to grow quickly in November last year, as loans to households and firms increased amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Wednesday. The country's M2 stood at 3,178.4 trillion won ($2.9 trillion) as of end-November, up 0.9 percent, or 27.9 trillion won, from October, according to preliminary data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). From a year earlier, M2 surged 9.7 percent, the BOK said. A key economic indicator closely monitored by authorities, M

Banks in South Korea are expected to tighten their lending to households and the small business sector in the first quarter of this year, as credit risks will remain high amid the pandemic, a central bank poll showed Wednesday. The Bank of Korea's index measuring the banks' attitude toward fresh loans came to minus 8 for the first quarter. The lower the reading, the more likely banks will tighten their restrictions on lending. A reading below zero means that the number of lenders that will res

Policy lender Korea Development Bank Chairman Lee Dong-gull said Tuesday that SsangYong Motor’s fate on getting financial assistance depends on its promise of stopping labor disputes until the cash-strapped company marks a turnaround. “We’ve seen many debt-ridden companies face strikes every year during annual negotiations between the labor union and management. To get rid of internal discord, the one-year group agreement needs to be extended to 3 years,” he said at the

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo on Monday urged the group’s employees to strive to gain a digital foothold in the banking industry to become the nation’s No. 1 financial platform company.  “While maintaining traditional core values as a financial institution, KB Financial Group should become a complete digital organization as well as financial platform company in the long run,” said Yoon at a strategic management meeting held online. During the online