Ethereum founding member says crypto winter likely to continue; warns of market hype, system that still lacks regulatory oversight

Major financial groups in South Korea have seen their assets almost double over the past decade on the back of their push for business expansion, data showed Wednesday. The country's eight financial groups had 3,221.7 trillion won ($2.46 trillion) as of the end of 2021, up 95 percent from 2012, according to the data from corporate tracker CEO Score. The eight financial groups are KB, Shinhan, H...

JB Financial Group, a Jeonju-based financial holding company, said Thursday it has renamed its subsidiary Mega Investment to JB Investment. The finance company inked a deal to take over Mega Investment from South Korean online educational service provider MegaStudy in May for 48 billion won ($36.5 million). The deal was signed as part of the regional bank’s efforts in diversifying its business p...

Prosecutors raided local cryptocurrency exchanges on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a fraud case in connection with the collapse of Terraform Labs’ digital coins, TerraUSD and Luna, officials said. A team of investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office began seizing transaction records and other material from Upbit and other local exchanges around 5 p.m., they sa...

Real estate firm Colliers Seoul head paints brighter future for pandemic-hit shopping mecca, citing expected return of Chinese tourists

South Korea’s three internet-only banks so far amassed 30 million combined users

South Korea’s top court on Thursday cleared Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung of unethical hiring charges, putting an end to a four-year legal battle and allowing a possible third term for Cho. The Supreme Court upheld the Seoul High Court’s decision in November last year to side with Cho on allegations that he had exercised his influence by accepting hiring requests from lawmaker...

KB Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s top lender said Wednesday that it will join other financial institutions in a $6.6 billion syndicated loan package to finance the John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal One redevelopment project in New York. KB Kookmin will contribute $300 million of the $6.6 billion loan, alongside Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and...

Demand for an unprecedented "big-step" rate hike among policymakers of the Bank of Korea (BOK) will likely intensify ahead of an upcoming rate-setting meeting should the country's consumer prices in June rise 6 percent or higher, a high-ranking central bank official has said. The outlook comes amid growing speculation the BOK could lean more toward the possibility of an unprecedented 0.5 percent...

The official commemorative coins issued by the Qatar Central Bank to celebrate the 2022 Qatar World Cup were showcased in Seoul on the sidelines of a ceremony held to launch limited edition medals to commemorate the Korea-Japan World Cup held 20 years ago. A set of 24 gold and silver legal tender coins were released by the Middle Eastern country last month as part of FIFA‘s Official Host Country ...

By Lee Seung-ku ( seungku99@heraldcorp.com )

Standard Chartered Bank Korea is offering a special interest rate of up to 1.9 percent per annum, before tax, to new customers opening a checking account by the end of this month. Account holders are eligible for the special rate up to 60 days from opening the account, as long as they keep the balance between 100 million won ($77,200) and 2 billion won. The rate is adjusted each day depending on...

South Korean retail and finance company, TGS Holdings, said Thursday that it has produced a TV commercial featuring former professional Go master Lee Se-dol last month. Lee Se-dol, who competed with Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in 2016 during the peak of his career, signed a contract to become the face of TGS in Novermber 2021. The newly produced commercial introduces TGS’s ...

The Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) said it has signed an agreement with Woori Financial Group to cooperate for climate control through sustainable forest management and environmental, social and corporate governance. The AFoCO is an international organization established upon Seoul’s proposal at the 2009 special summit between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nat...

South Korea's currency on Thursday fell below the 1,300-won level against the US dollar for the first time in about 13 years amid growing concerns about global monetary tightening and an economic recession. The Korean currency was trading at 1,300.70 won against the dollar as of 9:52 a.m., down 3.40 won from the previous session. It marked the first time that the won has fallen through the 1,30...