FTX’s plan to buy South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb appears to have gone up in smoke, with billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire being rocked by a liquidity crisis, industry watchers said Thursday. Crypto exchange giant Binance’s announcement on Wednesday to back out of its plans to acquire FTX is likely to halt the ongoing deal between the Bahamian crypto exchange platform and Bithumb, according to experts. “Investors have been wary of the crypto market because of

NTS has informed 2.25m individual services providers of W274.4b tax refunds unclaimed as part of agency's 'proactive governance' approach

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo met Friday with Henry Fernandez, chairman of the US financial firm Morgan Stanley Capital International, at Hana Financial Group's headquarters in central Seoul to discuss climate change response as well as environment, social and governance management. At the meeting, Ham introduced Hana Financial Group's ESG management efforts and its future plans to deal with the growing climate change risks. “Hana Financial Group is recognizing clim

Local investors' voracious appetite shows no sign of abiding, but regulatory hurdles remain to limit market expansion

A fire Saturday at a Kakao data center in Pangyo, south of Seoul, has led to a server outage affecting the KakaoTalk messenger app, along with other apps such as Kakao T, Kakao Map, Kakao Metro, Kakao Webtoon, Kakao Bank, Kakao-owned portal Daum and music streaming service Melon. The internet connection for the apps has been unavailable since 3:30 p.m. "There has been a fire at SK C&C data center since 3:30 p.m. Work has begun to put down the fire, but we are uncertain when the fir

SEJONG -- South Korea's fiscal deficit increased 15.1 trillion won ($10.5 billion) in the first eight months of 2022 from a year earlier due to spending on vulnerable groups amid the prolonged pandemic, data showed Thursday. The managed fiscal balance, a key gauge of fiscal health calculated on a stricter term, posted a deficit of 85.3 trillion won in the January-August period, larger than a shortfall of 70.2 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Monthly Public Finance report releas

The head of South Korea’s financial watchdog pledged Tuesday that he will complete an inspection into the troubled funds and products that led to investors suffering hefty losses in recent years. The vow follows public criticism that the Financial Supervisory Service failed to screen and prevent fiascos including Ponzi schemes carried out by hedge funds and local financial institutions in recent years. The FSS has yet to decide on the reimbursement plans regarding the troubled 2019 German

Apple Pay will start its Korean services next month or at least early December, according to recently leaked documents stating terms and conditions for Hyundai Card customers. The screen captures of digital documents labeled “terms and conditions” in Korean said that “the purpose of this document is to regulate the conditions and procedures of the rights between our customers and the company, obligations and responsibility and more for the usage of Apple Pay services provided

Standard Chartered Bank Korea and Toss Securities are discussing ways to compensate customers who suffered losses due to a faulty won-dollar exchange rate posted on their mobile trading apps, officials said Thursday. The won-dollar exchange rate on Toss Securities’ mobile trading system was frozen at 1,298 won per US dollar from 1:50 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, when the actual rate hovered around 1,440 won. SC Bank Korea, the London-based financial giant’s Korean unit, which pr

Samsung Group’s insurance units signed a deal worth $650 million with US-based private equity firm Blackstone to expand its global alternative asset portfolio, the Korean insurers said Wednesday. Samsung Life Insurance and non-life insurer Samsung Fire ＆ Marine Insurance will invest in overseas real estate, infrastructure and private equities managed by Blackstone through the latest deal. The investment will be managed by Samsung’s asset management arms Samsung Asset Management and

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives is expanding international cooperation to help alleviate poverty in developing countries by sharing Koreans’ experience of doing so through savings. Under the guidance of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, community credit cooperatives, known as Saemaul Geumgo, were set up in Myanmar in 2017, Uganda in 2018 and Laos in 2020. Currently, 53 branches in those countries have some 13,000 members. Recently, separate federations of co

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said it will offer special interest rates of up to 2.4 percent for as long as 60 days to first-time SC customers who deposit 100 million won or more, up to 2 billion won, in money market deposit accounts. Money market deposit accounts pay interest based on the daily account balance. The bigger the deposit, the higher the interest. The promotional rate is offered to first-time customers of SC Bank Korea who open their accounts by Thursday. The promotion will end wh

Brokerages in South Korea raked in a combined 23.61 billion won ($16.5 million) in fees from handling stock short selling in the first half of this year, data showed Tuesday. The amount compared with 29.28 billion won they earned from short selling-related fees throughout last year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The Seoul branch of Morgan Stanley earned the largest amount at 6.44 billion won, while the Seoul office of Credit Suisse brought in 3.15 billion won in s

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments is pulling out of a 4.1 trillion won ($2.86 billion) deal to acquire IFC Seoul, a landmark complex in Yeouido, western Seoul, from Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, industry sources said Monday. In May, Mirae Asset was picked as the preferred bidder to acquire the IFC Complex, which consists of three office towers, after fierce competition with a consortium led by retail giant Shinsegae Group. “Mirae Asset has filed a dispute s

BUSAN -- Blockchain industry leaders seeking to merge entertainment with technology are looking closely to the power of fandoms, believing that it could reshape the ecosystem, according to speakers at the 2022 Upbit Developer Conference on Friday. “Hybe's business model is based on fans promoting artists,” Hybe America President Jason Jaesang Lee said during the second day of this year’s conference held in Busan. “Fans becoming promoters for our artists is a powerful g