The credit card industry was found to have taken profit by bullying its subcontractors over the past few years, a lawmaker said Wednesday, citing financial regulatory data. The card issuers involved in improprieties during their deals with suppliers were BC, Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Samsung, Lotte, Hana SK, Korea Exchange Bank and NongHyup Bank, according to Rep. Kim Young-joo of the main o...

Stock market insiders are focusing on the future moves of foreign investors, who have tended to dump Korean shares whenever the U.S. dollar trades below 1,060 won. Although foreigners have had a strong buying spree on the Korea Exchange over the past few weeks, research analysts point to the past when overseas investors based their decisions largely on Korean firms’ export price competitiveness....

The chief financial regulator said Friday that four more local conglomerates had been involved in dubious funding schemes similar to embattled Tong Yang Group. “We have documents on cases (of irregular funding) at four local business groups,” said Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Choi Soo-hyun during the National Assembly’s audit of the regulatory agency. Choi, however, declined to reveal the...

South Korean conglomerates saw their earnings gain at a faster pace last year than smaller firms, data showed Wednesday, reigniting concerns over the prolonged inequality among industries. According to the compiled data by the parliament’s Trade, Industry and Energy Committee, the productivity index for South Korean conglomerates came to 164.9 points in 2012, while small and medium firms held a c...

South Korea’s listed firms saw their debt ratios plunge last year from 15 years earlier, data showed Wednesday, indicating their significantly improved financial health since the Asian financial crisis. According to the data compiled by the Korea CXO Institute, a private research organization, local listed firms saw their average debt ratio reach 145 percent in 2012 on average, falling significa...

The government’s growth outlook for next year is “neutral,” the finance minister said Wednesday, shrugging off criticism that the projection is too optimistic considering current economic conditions. “It is a neutral position to predict that the economy will grow 3.9 percent next year,” Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok told lawmakers during a parliamentary audit session held here. The remarks came...

Only one in every three chief executives in South Korea has extended his or her term in office, with their average term period turning out to be shorter at large enterprises, data showed Wednesday. The number of senior management-level officials at top 500 local firms who have been reappointed at least once came to 188, or 36.4 percent, out of 516 respondents, according to the data compiled by l...

Apple Inc. will update its lineup of iPads at an Oct. 22 event, a person with knowledge of the plans said, as the company works to remain ahead of rivals in the increasingly crowded tablet market. The Cupertino, California-based company will unveil a new version of the original 9.7-inch iPad as well as the smaller iPad mini, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven...

More companies are likely to have difficulty in raising funds by issuing commercial paper or bonds, as a huge portion of investors pull their investment out of the corporate bond market in the wake of a liquidity crisis among some conglomerates. Over the past year, business groups such as Tong Yang, STX and Woongjin undermined retail investors for an insolvent financial status. Investors for CP...

The liquidity crisis at Tong Yang Group has reignited the long-standing debate over the pros and cons of greater restrictions on conglomerates owning financial subsidiaries. The question of erecting a strict firewall between manufacturing capital and financial units has resurfaced amid mounting allegations that Tong Yang’s owners exploited the group’s financial units as behind-the-scenes funding...

AmorePacific Corp. said it would disclose its official position on allegations that one of its employees tried to blackmail a dealership of the nation’s largest cosmetics maker. According to an audio clip file released by a broadcaster on Sunday, the employee of AmorePacific verbally abused a middle-aged owner of the regional dealership. In the clip, the employee appears to be pressuring the mi...

Financial regulators launched their inquiry into allegations that some affiliates of the embattled Tong Yang Group manipulated stocks before they filed for court receivership. Out of the five Tong Yang units that applied for the court’s control last week, three firms ― Tong Yang Inc., Tong Yang Networks and Tong Yang Cement & Energy ― are listed on the Korea Exchange. The main exchange issued a...

The sales disparity among 23 foreign carmakers in Korea has deepened while the overall import car industry has continued to expand its presence over the past few years. Though import car sales in the local market increased by 21.3 percent in the past nine months on-year, Toyota Motor Corp. reported a 24.8 percent drop over the corresponding period. Toyota Motor CEO Akio Toyoda had vowed to beco...