A senior official of South Korea's financial regulator on Friday urged major banks to determine their lending rates based on "best practice" and make improvements in relevant procedures if necessary. Lee Chan-woo, first senior deputy governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), made the remark in a meeting with officials of eight banks handling credit affairs in Seoul amid growing worrie...

Most taxpayers will not be subject to the comprehensive real estate holding tax, which was earlier raised to prevent speculative property purchases, the government said Friday in a bid to ease growing public concerns as this year’s payment period approaches. “Criticism has risen that a large number of ordinary people will be charged with higher rate taxes. As for such exaggerated concerns, I wou...

South Korea's top trade official called on the United States on Friday to launch negotiations swiftly to revise the Section 232 tariff rules on Seoul's steel exports. South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo made the request to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai during in a joint committee meeting of the bilateral free trade agreement. It is the first time in 10 years that a US top trade offi...

The head of South Korea's financial regulator has called for more vigilance on growing global debt, warning excessive accumulation of debt could spark a global financial crisis, his office said Friday. Koh Seung-beom, chief of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), made the remark on Thursday as he joined a virtual plenary meeting of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), an organization made up...

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, as investors sought to buy oversold stocks after the key index's three straight days of losses. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 12.44 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,959.82 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Tech, auto and bio stocks led the market advance. Top cap Samsung Electronics added 0.28 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK h...

South Korea's producer prices grew for the 12th straight month in October as a rise in oil and energy prices drove up the costs of factory products, central bank data showed Friday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 112.21 in October, up 0.8 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marked ...

South Korea's financial regulator said Thursday that it will convene an emergency meeting this week with officials of major banks to look into how they determine interest rates on lending amid worries over recent steep hikes in borrowing costs. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will hold the meeting on Friday with officials handling credit affairs at eight banks, including Kookmin, Shinhan...

An absence of funds that consist of cryptocurrencies has put individual investors in danger, blockchain industry-focused investment firm Hashed founder and CEO Simon Kim said Wednesday. “I believe this current situation of not being able to establish a cryptocurrency fund despite its popularity and high transaction volume is abnormal and contributes to market distortion,” Kim said. Kim added th...

The government said Thursday it will launch a system to monitor some 20 key raw materials, such as magnesium and tungsten, to ensure stable supplies and prevent the recurrence of a crisis similar to the urea solution supply crunch. The "early warning system" for the designated raw materials is aimed at prioritizing the supply management of materials highly dependent on imports so as to prevent s...

South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung was elected as a member of the Leadership Council, under the United Nations sustainability initiative between the organization and the global finance sector, the firm said Thursday. The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative was created in 1992 between the UNEP and the financial sector to better encourage the adoptio...

Renters in posh Seoul neighborhoods struggle to stay afoot as housing boom pushes rents to extreme -- but lure of social status remains powerful

The company has also launched “BIZA-Metaversity,” a metaverse-based AI education platform, to provide a decentralized, two-way education service. “We expect BIZA-Metaversity to become the metaverse platform that combines education with one of the most essential technologies in the off-contact era,” said Choi. Choi added that the metaverse platform seeks to offer a virtual, realistic learning ex...

South Korean household income grew at its fastest pace in the third quarter thanks to the economic recovery and the government's emergency relief funds, data showed Thursday. The average household earned 4.73 million won ($4,000) per month in the July-September period, up 8 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the fastest on-year growth since 20...

South Korea's exports of automobiles fell for the second consecutive month in October due mainly to an extended global supply shortage of automotive chips, data showed Thursday. Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 159,520 units last month, down 18.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of value, exports also de...

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, with tech and chemical shares weighing on the market. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 11.76 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,950.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 0.58 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite declined 0.33 percent amid...