Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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President appoints BOK chief to second term
President Moon Jae-in appointed the incumbent head of the central bank to a second term Monday, stressing the importance of stability in monetary policy.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol was appointed to his second four-year term in a ceremony held at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.Lee's appointment came about a month after the president decided to retain the top central banker for a second term.The 65-year-old is the first person in more than four decades to have been appointed to a second
April 9, 2018
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Labor union to demand Korean banks close during lunch
A labor union of South Korean bank employees is demanding bank branches here close during lunchtime in forthcoming collective bargaining talks. The Korean Financial Industry Union was reported as saying Monday the proposal was designed to guarantee bank clerks get an hourlong lunch break. The KFIU is an umbrella group representing labor unions of over 30 financial institutions, including local commercial banks, provincial banks and co-ops.Korean banks, with few exceptions, are open to cust
April 9, 2018
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Samsung Securities fiasco exposes stock trading loophole
A South Korean brokerage mistakenly paying 1,000 shares in dividends instead of 1,000 won ($0.93) due to a computational error Friday has exposed a major loophole in the nation’s stock trading system, prompting immediate intervention by regulators.Starting Monday, the Financial Supervisory Service will launch an inspection into internal system flaws at Samsung Securities, the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage, where the incident happened last week, officials said Sunday. The authorit
April 8, 2018
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Korean banks' real interest rate in minus territory: BOK
Real interest rates offered by South Korean lenders fell into minus territory last year, with people effectively losing money if they make deposits, central bank data showed Sunday.The Bank of Korea said the average annual interest rate for savings accounts stood at 1.56 percent, compared with inflation that reached 1.9 percent, resulting in a real interest rate of minus 0.34 percent.It said average interest rate numbers for 2017 were the second lowest in history and marked the first time in six
April 8, 2018
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Arrest warrants sought for cryptocurrency executives for fraud, embezzlement
Prosecutors on Friday requested court warrants to arrest four executives of two cryptocurrency exchanges on fraud and embezzlement charges.Kim Ik-hwan, head of Coinnest, and three others are accused of pocketing billions of won from clients' accounts by transferring the money to their own private accounts, according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. A court review on the request will be held early Friday, it said. They were detained for questioning Wednesday. Prosecutors
April 6, 2018
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Short selling of Celltrion persists on Kospi
Contrary to market expectations for Celltrion to avoid short selling by moving from the second-tier Kosdaq market to the first-tier Kospi in February, the ratio of the firm’s short sellers have increased since then, data showed Thursday. Of the entire daily trading from Feb. 9 to Monday, short selling accounted for 13.8 percent. The figure saw an upshot from the yearly estimate until Feb. 9 this year, at 8.4 percent. By month, the average short selling ratio came to 13.6 percent in March,
April 5, 2018
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Banks likely to strengthen screening for household loans in Q2: BOK
Local lenders are expected to tighten their guidelines on household loans in the second quarter of this year amid government-led measures to control the overheated real estate market, central bank data showed Thursday.The overall index measuring banks' "attitude" toward extending loans to households came to minus seven for the April-June period, compared with minus 10 a quarter earlier, according to data by the Bank of Korea.A reading below zero means banks will implement tougher scree
April 5, 2018
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S. Korean crypto exchange CEO nabbed for embezzlement
The chief executive officer and high-ranking executives of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinnest were detained Wednesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement, according to prosecutors Thursday. This is the first time an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange in Korea has been charged.Prosecutors are seeking arrest warrants for the executives, including CEO Kim Ik-hwan, in the next two days. They are alleged to have swindled customers of digitized assets for their personal accounts, prosec
April 5, 2018
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[Photo News] Future of digital currency
FUTURE OF DIGITAL CURRENCY -- Participants discuss the future of central bank digital currencies in a session at Deconomy 2018, held in Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. From left are: Jeff Paik, chief executive at Finector; Clark Thompson, solution architect at Consensys; Ian Grigg, partner at Block.one; Antony Lewis, director of research, CBDC strategy at R3; and Stanley Yong, global lead for CBDC at IBM. Yonhap
April 4, 2018
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Chief of state-run credit backer offers to resign over extramarital affair
The chief of the state-run credit backer of SMEs on Wednesday offered to resign following a scandal over an extramarital affair. Kim Kyu-ok, who leads the Korea Technology Finance Corp., offered his resignation, according to Ministry of SMEs and Startups officials, following his alleged adultery. The ministry said it will decide soon whether it should conduct an audit or ask the police to investigate him. Earlier Wednesday, local cable network JTBC reported that Kim has had an inappropriat
April 4, 2018
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[News Focus] Tightened financial rules to weigh on Samsung’s insurance units
South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group is facing increased pressure to break away from its circular shareholding corporate governance, as its insurance units may have to sell off most of their affiliate stocks in compliance with reinforced financial regulations.Weighing further upon the group is the recent appointment of a former civic group activist and progressive lawmaker who is known for reformist conglomerate policies as the head of the nation’s financial market watchd
April 4, 2018
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Foreign banks see shrinking gain from Korean branches
Foreign banks with branches in South Korea reported a decline in earnings here in 2017, on falling interest and trading income, data showed Wednesday. The 38 branches from global banks across the globe had logged a combined 680.7 billion won ($642.8 million) of net income in 2017, down 10.6 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The branches suffered a drop in interest income by 58.3 billion won, or 5.2 percent on-year. The los
April 4, 2018
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Cryptocurrency operators' profits soar in 2017: data
South Korea's cryptocurrency exchange operators reaped huge profits in 2017 on the back of the national frenzy over digital money, data showed Wednesday.The annual turnover of BTC Korea.com, which is in charge of local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, stood at 333.4 billion won ($315.6 million) in 2017, up a sharp 77 times on-year from 4.3 billion won. Its net profit jumped from 2.5 billion won to 427.2 billion won over the past year, according to the report by Vidente Co. The major source of in
April 4, 2018
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Financial groups face tighter rules on internal transactions
South Korea’s top five financial conglomerates and two other financial heavyweights will be required to ease their intra-group transactions, especially their cross-shareholding structures, according to regulators.The Financial Services Commission on Tuesday announced a reinforced set of rules, obligating major financial companies to sell off their shares in non-financial affiliates in case such business practices may bring risks in the financial system. The regulation, which came as p
April 3, 2018
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Progressive new FSS chief pledges consumer protection
The new governor of the Financial Supervisory Service in his inauguration speech Monday stressed a need to bolster autonomy as a regulator and enhance consumer protection. Kim Ki-sik, a new chief regulator of financial institutions who took office Monday, succeeded the role of Choe Heung-sik, who offered to step down on March 12. Ex-governor Choe‘s resignation came amid growing allegations of irregularities and abuse of power in the process of hiring entry-level employees at Hana Financial
April 2, 2018
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BOK chief to focus on stability in financial system
Korea's central bank chief said Monday that the country's monetary policy tools will be used to support the economy and maintain financial stability at the same time."It is necessary to manage monetary policy in such a way as to make the financial system more stable and help the momentum for recovery," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in an inaugural ceremony for his second four-year term. He was reappointed by President Moon Jae-in last month."The central bank will keep the ac
April 2, 2018
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Banks downsize staff, branches by greatest number since 2000
Local banks reduced their workforces and branch offices last year by the greatest number since 2000, with digitalization-driven downsizing accelerating, data from the financial regulator showed Sunday.The number of employees in the banking sector at the end of last year totaled 111,173, down 3,602 from the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Statistics Information System operated by the regulator Financial Supervisory Service. The level of downsizing is the biggest since 5,20
April 1, 2018
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Banks' home rental loans jump 38.5% in Feb.
Loans extended by the nation's five major banks to individuals for home rentals jumped 38.5 percent on-year in February amid the government's tightening of mortgages for new homes, according to industry data Saturday. Outstanding loans extended by the five lenders, including Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, specifically for home rentals amounted to about 49 trillion won ($46.1 billion) as of the end of last month, up 13.6 trillion won from a year ago, the data showed. The rise is apparently
March 31, 2018
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Veteran civic activist nominated to lead financial watchdog
South Korea's top financial regulator on Friday nominated a veteran civic activist and former lawmaker to head the Financial Supervisory Services, officials said.Kim Ki-sik, 52, who had served various posts at the nongovernmental organization People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy until 2011, was tapped for the post, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.If President Moon Jae-in approves Kim's nomination, he will succeed Choe Heung-sik, who resigned earlier this month ov
March 30, 2018
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Marginal companies on rise: BOK
The number of marginal companies stuck in the financial quagmire with little room for profitability growth has been on the rise, further bogging down the economy as it anticipates rate hikes, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday. Korea refers to firms with interest costs outweighing operating profits for at least three consecutive years as “marginal companies.”The number of such firms in 2016 came to 3,126, taking up 14.2 percent of all Korean non-financial firms subject to external au
March 29, 2018