Behind South Korea‘s rapid industrial growth was a military-like corporate culture that united workforces for a shared goal: the company‘s success and my family‘s well being. The mantra “your company is your family” propelled the tremendous drive toward economic prosperity but also gave validity to tough corporate culture and hierarchy. The decades-old corporate culture, however, is now being for...

South Korean authorities and major cryptocurrency exchanges are cranking up the heat on controversial “stablecoin” terraUSD and its sister luna over its price fall fiasco, with the prosecution launching a crackdown on the case, reports said Sunday. Major crypto exchanges here are planning to form a joint body that would help them counter crises like the collapse of the terraUSD and luna, which c...

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.75 percent and hinted at further rate hikes to come to fend off the country’s highest inflation spike in 14 years. In the first rate-setting meeting presided by the new Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong, the six-member monetary policy board unanimously voted to carry out its fifth pandem...

Korbit, one of South Korea’s top four cryptocurrency exchanges, has decided to delist luna, the sister coin of controversial stablecoin terraUSD, on Wednesday, following in the steps of other top platforms such as Bithumb and Upbit. The decision comes a day after chiefs of major crypto exchanges here were criticized by lawmakers for their “uncoordinated” response towards the price fall fiasco of...

Chiefs of South Korea’s KB Financial Group and US’ Jefferies Financial Group discussed strengthening and expanding its existing partnership in the global investment banking market, the Korean banking giant said Tuesday. In a meeting with Jefferies Financial Group President Brian Friedman, KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo discussed plans to build a stronger cooperation in investment ban...

Shares of Hybe, the company behind K-pop sensation BTS, will account for some 10 percent of the much-anticipated KPOP ETF, an exchange-traded fund designed by Seoul-based intellectual property-focused company builder Contents Technologies, an industry source said Tuesday. “Hybe with its market cap standing at 8.9 trillion won ($7.1 million) is supposed to make up some 20 or 30 percent of the KPO...

New South Korean Land Minister Won Hee-ryong pledged Monday to announce measures to ease the cap on presale prices of privately built apartments, a scheme adopted by the previous Moon Jae-in administration widely criticized for failing to curb the housing prices here. “The scheme has been introducing side-effects to the market as it forcefully puts a cap on the presale prices when it doesn’t con...

Taiwanese banking giant Fubon Financial on Friday raised its stake in South Korea’s Hyundai Card to nearly 20 percent, expanding its clout over management of the card issuer. Fubon Financial is now the card issuer’s third-largest shareholder with 19.98 percent after Hyundai Motor with 36.96 percent and Hyundai Commercial with 28.56 percent. Kia Corp. is the fourth-largest stakeholder with 11.48 ...

Some 100,000 retail investors in South Korea each held over 100 million won ($78,000) in deposits at cryptocurrency exchanges here as of end-2021, government data showed Thursday, fueling concerns as the recent crash of Korean-made terraUSD and luna cryptocurrencies has decimated the value of digital assets. As of end-December last year, a total of 5.58 million investors were registered with loc...

South Korea has yet to arrive at a stage where the option of a “big step” or half a percentage point rate hike can be completely ruled out, with the possibility of higher inflationary pressure looming over the economy, the nation’s central bank chief said Monday. Following his breakfast meeting with Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong told reporters the uncertainti...

But at the same time, analysts painted a rosy outlook for K-pop-related investments, highlighting the local entertainment industry’s capacity to become early adapters of new technologies. Korean entertainment companies now own various intellectual property rights that can boost their metaverse-related businesses. This will help them rebound for the rest of the year, according to Mirae Asset Secur...

An employee at Woori Bank embezzled 490 million won ($380,000) earlier this year, reports said Thursday, dampening the lender’s struggle to rebuild its reputation after a separate 60 billion won employee theft was uncovered last month. The employee, whose identity was withheld, stole the money by withdrawing from automatic teller machines from mid-January to early February. Woori recently found ...

South Korea’s financial authorities recently returned over 61.4 billion won ($48.84 million) owed to Iran’s Dayyani Group, the amount that was stolen in an embezzlement scheme here between late 2012 and 2018, sources said Tuesday. The policymaking Financial Services Commission has returned most of the total 73 billion won owed to Dayyani’s consumer electronics arm, Entekhab, as compensation over...

Ahead of the scheduled South Korea-US summit next week, some lawmakers and experts have been calling for a revival of the bilateral currency swap as a countermeasure to the growing signs of a weakening won, reports said Monday. South Korean market was rattled on Friday when its local currency hit its lowest point in over two years, trading at 1,272.7 won against the US greenback at around 3:30 p...

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byeong met with the UK Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith and British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks to discuss the role of the finance sector in combating climate change and biodiversity loss, the firm said Sunday. In the meeting held Friday, Goldsmith was briefed on Shinhan’s Zero-Carbon Drive, which includes the banking group’s goal to reduce carbon...