South Korea’s leading insurance firms are set to offer customized health care services through digital platforms after a regulatory bar was lifted for offering non-financial services. Amid fast growth of the elderly population, the government‘s plan to revitalize the health care industry coupled with the insurance sector’s needs to discover new revenue source prompt insurers to create digital health management solutions.　 The Financial Services Commission last week allowed

Market July 19, 2021

The prospect of big tech firms taking over the realm of retail banking has been setting off alarm bells in traditional banks in South Korea including Woori, one of the big five lenders that has dominated the industry for decades. But Hwang Weon-cheol, Woori’s chief digital officer who has been leading the bank’s digital transformation, believes the bank still has strengths that the newcomers don’t have. The growth of big tech firms like Kakao, operator of the country&rsquo

Market July 19, 2021

The state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea said Thursday it had agreed to extend a $600 million loan to Tunisia to support the North African country’s digital infrastructure development projects. Tunisia plans to use the fund to digitize some 4.5 million maps and land-related documents to build a database and develop a comprehensive land information management system there. “We expect that our support for Tunisia’s land management infrastructure innovation, which is the cou

Market July 15, 2021

South Korea will scale up its “Korean New Deal” stimulus package by making additional investments worth 60 trillion won ($52.2 billion) to nurture human talents for future industries, and improve ill-functioning employment and the social safety net, the government said Wednesday. Marking the first anniversary of the launch of the Korean New Deal initiative, President Moon Jae-in unveiled an upgraded version focusing on responses to deepening social inequality and economic polar

Economy July 14, 2021

The government will strengthen its monitoring of financial markets as volatility increases due to a recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases here, First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Tuesday. “As uncertainty related to virus variants persist, the possibility of increased volatility in the financial market in the future cannot be ruled out,” he said during a meeting on macroeconomic policies and financial affairs. With the quick spread of the more contagious delta variant lo

Economy July 13, 2021

Shinhan Financial Group will invest in a delivery service provider and an autonomous transportation service startup to upgrade its banking platform and find new revenue streams amid increasing competition in the financial industry for digital transformation, the banking group said Monday. The lender has pledged to make an investment worth 77 billion won ($67.21 million) into three digital platform companies by using a 300 billion-won fund launched by Shinhan affiliates including its credit ca

Market July 12, 2021

Local lenders have decided to stop providing access to customers looking for fractional art ownership via a mobile application after facing regulatory hurdles, according to sources Thursday. 　 Shinhan Bank recently notified customers that it will terminate its service partnership with Seoul Auction Blue, an online auction house that sells contemporary paintings, art toys and luxury goods, from July 30. Since January, the lender had offered online access to co-investing in art by embedding the

Market July 8, 2021

South Korea will take preemptive actions to manage its sovereign debt to maintain sound fiscal health, the country’s top economic policy maker said during an annual consultation meeting with global rating agency Fitch Ratings on Tuesday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product is expected to fare better than projected earlier. The government drew up this year’s second supplementary budget without a debt sale and had paid some debts o

Economy July 6, 2021

With signs of recovery in the global construction market, the government said Monday it would make an all-out effort to achieve its goal of securing $30 billion worth of overseas construction deals this year. “Large-scale infrastructure investment demand from developed and developing countries is expected to grow as the global construction market is expected to recover this year,” Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said. Korean construction firms won overseas orders worth $14.7 billion

Economy July 5, 2021

South Korean conglomerates Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are likely to be subject to a global minimum tax rate that multinational companies will have to pay regardless of where their headquarters are. Some 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 90 percent of global gross domestic product, endorsed a set of tax plans aimed at addressing the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and D

Economy July 2, 2021

South Korea will carry out massive public-private R&D collaboration projects to capture the biggest share of the global rechargeable battery market by 2030, the country’s top economic policymaker said Thursday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government will soon announce detailed strategic plans to make the country the largest producer of next-generation rechargeable batteries to stay ahead of global rivals. In 2020, Korean rechargeable battery makers topped the world marke

Economy July 1, 2021

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki warned Wednesday that the housing market was overvalued, and that a scheduled tightening of loan regulations and a possible interest rate hike could see home prices fall. During a government meeting on the real estate market, Hong urged market participants to refrain from buying homes based on expectations of future price increases. “An inflow of liquidity into the housing market could slow down as the country is set to implement measures to slow the growt

Economy June 30, 2021

Aiming for the complete recovery of the South Korean economy, the government will deploy a series of policies inducing domestic consumption and supporting pandemic-hit businesses and exporters in the second half, the Finance Ministry said Monday. “The direction of economic policy for the second half of 2021 was established with a focus on two goals -- complete economic recovery and a major structural transformation into a leading economy,” Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said while

Economy June 28, 2021

South Korea’s central bank said Monday that the country’s financial vulnerabilities had increased to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, calling for efforts to prevent a deepening of the financial imbalance caused by the heated real estate and digital asset markets. The nation’s financial vulnerability index climbed to 58.9 in the first three months of 2021, surpassing 41.9, the figure it reported in the fourth quarter of 2019, before COVID-19 hit the country

Economy June 22, 2021

The Seoul stock market traded bearishly Thursday after the US Federal Reserve projected rate hikes in 2023, ending a brief winning streak this week on economic and corporate improvements. But upon watching the market drop in response to the Fed’s hawkish stance, South Korean policymakers expressed confidence about dealing with any resulting volatility in the financial market. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Asia’s fourth-largest economy may be affected to some extent

Economy June 17, 2021