Wealthy Koreans in their 20s, 30s and 40s held an average asset of 6.6 billion won ($5.3 million) with a median annual income of 400 million won as of end-2021, a report showed Wednesday. The report dubbed 2022 Korean Wealth Report compiled by a think tank under Hana Bank was based on a survey of 1,952 Koreans above the age of 19 conducted in December last year. It categorized 708 respondents wi...

South Korean banks are eager to branch out into the trust fund market here, as the country’s demographic shift to an aging society has accelerated demand for it. While it is common in the US and other countries to establish a trust fund for inheritance and keep assets within the family with minimal legal issues, a majority of Korean families still prefer passing on assets through wills. But toda...

South Korea's foreign reserves shrank in March due to a decline in the dollar-converted value of its assets and unloading of dollars aimed at curbing the local currency's steep descent, central bank data showed Tuesday. The country's foreign reserves stood at $457.81 billion as of end-March, down $3.96 billion from the previous month, according to the data provided by the Bank of Korea (BOK). T...

Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Canadian subsidiary Horizons ETFs’ assets under management have exceeded 20 trillion won ($16.4 billion), showing more than a sixfold increase in the last decade. On Monday, the Korean asset manager said Horizons ETFs’ assets under management had reached $18.1 billion, or 22.2 trillion won. The figure has increased more than sixfold since Mirae Asset acquired Hori...

South Korea’s cryptocurrency market is on a solid path to becoming further legitimized with banks calling for authorization to enter the business and the incoming president pledging to ease regulations. Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s crypto market is booming, with Koreans having invested a total 52.8 trillion won ($43.6 billion) in the digital asset class last year in terms of the combined size...

The Seoul High Court on Thursday temporarily suspended the punishment imposed by financial authorities on Hana Financial Group Chairman-nominee Ham Young-joo for improper sales of derivatives-linked products. The decision follows Ham’s move last week to file an appeal against a lower court’s ruling that found him guilty of the charges. The Seoul High Court accepted an injunction to delay the im...

Foreigners have been targets of stricter screening, rejection for loans -- banks are trying to change that.

Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea grew for the first time in three months in February thanks to increased corporate savings, central bank data showed Monday. Residents' outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits reached $98.14 billion as of end-February, up $4.97 billion from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Residents include local c...

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group has recently submitted a bid of $2.6 billion to buy Premier football club Chelsea, in a consortium led by UK property magnate Nick Candy. Local reports on Saturday said that the consortium of Candy, Hana Financial Group and Korean sports management firm C&P Sports -- dubbed “The Blue Football Consortium” -- have become one of several bidders who expressed their...

The average annual salary at South Korea’s top four banks exceeded 100 million won ($82,500) for the first time last year, backed by a surge in interest and fee revenue, data showed Sunday. Bankers under the four commercial banks here -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori -- received an average 105.5 million won last year, 7.6 percent up from the previous year, according to their annual reports...

Toss Bank, South Korea’s internet only bank, said Wednesday it will pay daily deposit interest to its customers for the first time in the banking industry. Toss Bank account owners can simply click on the “receive now” button to be paid with daily deposit interest, instead of receiving it monthly. With the service, users can withdraw their money including the deposit interest at any time they w...

Young South Koreans are anticipating the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s version of its state-backed savings account, with a goal of helping investors accrue 100 million won ($80,500). The state-backed savings account would allow South Korean residents aged between 19 and 34 to subscribe and submit a monthly payment of a maximum 700,000 won for a 10-year term, with an annual yield of 3.5...

A Seoul court on Monday found Hana Financial Group Chairman-nominee Ham Young-joo responsible for Hana Bank’s improper sales of derivatives-linked products that caused a fiasco in 2019 after investors saw huge losses. Defying market expectations, the Seoul Administrative Court found the chairman-nominee and then-Hana Bank CEO guilty of failing to appropriately supervise the bank’s misselling of ...

Public Investment Fund becomes key shareholder of NCSoft, Nexon

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai was the highest-paid banking CEO last year, taking home an annual salary of 2.4 billion won ($1.98 million), according to annual reports filed by financial firms Sunday. Kim ranked No. 1 in annual salary paid to executives among his peers, with KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo ranking No. 2 with 1.7 billion won and Shinhan Financial Group Chai...