Shinhan Card said Monday it plans to launch private label credit card featuring South Korean boyband BTS and other celebrities later this year, exclusively for K-pop fans. In partnership with Weverse Company, a fan community platform created by Hybe, the entertainment agency behind BTS, Shinhan will launch PLCCs that offer benefits and rewards to cardholders who buy albums or concert goods via Weverse Shop. A PLCC is a credit card branded jointly by two business entities that are intended to

Market July 5, 2021

South Korea’s top financial regulator will give a ruling on whether the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s two daughters -- Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Samsung Welfare Foundation chief Lee Seo-hyun -- are qualified to become major shareholders of Samsung Life Insurance. This decision is expected to go in their favor, paving their way to become the company’s largest shareholders, industry sources said on Sunday. The policymaking Financial Services Commission is sl

Market July 4, 2021

South Korea has been a great experience for our family since relocating here with HSBC in late 2018. Our daughter who recently turned four is happily growing up.  For those who know me, I’ve always been a big believer that one can learn a lot from kids. From the endless creativity and ever more sophisticated negotiating skills to little things they learn from school, the thought-provoking interactions often provide valuable reflections on life and how we should think about future g

Market July 4, 2021

JB Financial Group on Thursday laid out mid-and long-term strategies to step up its sustainable business management focused on environmental, social and corporate governance values. In a statement, the holding group of Jeonbuk Bank and Kwangju Bank introduced its ESG goals under a new company vision titled “Marching toward a better future with JB Financial.”  The company will strive toward adopting a swift response to climate-related risks, achieving carbon neutrality, ethic

Market July 1, 2021

Housing polarization is rapidly deepening in South Korea, with the gap between the highest- and lowest-priced apartments widening to its greatest level on record in June, data showed Tuesday.  According to data from KB Kookmin Bank’s real estate services platform Liiv On, apartment prices in the top 20 percent range reached an average of 1.1 billion won ($978,000) this month, gaining nearly 200 million won on-year. This marked the highest number since the lender started to compile

Market June 29, 2021

More than half of adults in South Korea tend not to review the effects of inflation on real estate prices when making housing transactions, a phenomenon known as the “money illusion,” according to a report from the Bank of Korea. Money illusion is a term coined by the American economist Irving Fisher in the late 1920s to describe people’s tendency to view their wealth and income in nominal dollar terms, wrongly believing that they have a fixed value, rather than recognize thei

Market June 28, 2021

South Korea’s Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Friday voiced opposition to a new round of COVID-19 emergency cash handouts for all nationals, promoted by the ruling Democratic Party and the government. “It is inappropriate to hand out emergency relief funds to people in the upper income brackets. The US government doesn’t even offer tax rebates for the upper class,” Hong said at the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee meeting. “Spending money

Business June 25, 2021

South Korea’s top financial regulator said Friday it will lift the current 20 percent dividend cap imposed on local lenders and financial holding firms on July 1, raising the possibility of interim dividends in the second quarter.  The decision came as most of Korea’s major banks and financial holding companies were found to have maintained financial soundness amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. They passed the authority’s latest stress test, conducted between May and

Market June 25, 2021

South Korea’s top financial regulator said Thursday that it had granted approval to two regional banks -- Jeonbuk Bank and Daegu Bank -- to offer MyData services. It was a move to foster the burgeoning data-driven business segment, whereby the country’s major commercial banks have already begun procedures to launch related services.  The policymaking Financial Services Commission granted preliminary MyData licenses to six financial firms, officials said. The others are KB Cap

Market June 24, 2021

Responding to South Korean investors’ growing interest in direct trading of foreign securities, the nation‘s bourse operator Korea Exchange has listed a wide range of popular overseas exchange-traded funds as well as exchange-traded notes, according to the KRX Wednesday.  As of May this year, a total of 257 overseas exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes are listed on the KRX, officials said.  Local investors trading ETFs and ETNs listed on the KRX are not subjec

Market June 23, 2021

Despite the economic fallout of COVID-19, the number of South Korean millionaires sharply increased, largely due to an overheating phenomenon in asset markets following the government’s pandemic-era stimulus measures, a report showed Wednesday.  According to the “Global Wealth Report 2021,” released by Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse, the number of people with financial assets worth more than $1 million, or nearly 1.1 billion won, rose by 140,000 on-year to 1.05 million

Economy June 23, 2021

Impeached former President Park Geun-hye’s house in Naegok-dong, southern Seoul, will be put up for sale in August at a public auction, according to local real estate auction information provider GG Auction on Tuesday. The state-run Korea Asset Management Corp. will kick off the first round of bidding on Aug. 9. If the property does not sell during the three-day bidding period, Kamco will lower the price by 10 percent and hold a second round of bidding the following week, officials sai

Market June 22, 2021

Global ratings firm Moody’s on Tuesday raised its rating outlook for South Korean lender NH NongHyup Bank from stable to positive, while maintaining the firm’s ratings at A1.  “The upgrade reflects our expectation that the bank’s asset soundness and capital adequacy as well as improved profitability will remain solid over the next 12-18 months,” Moody’s said in a statement.  Meanwhile, Moody’s revised up the ratings of NH Investment & S

Market June 22, 2021

To provide financial support for South Korean companies with overseas contracts in the Middle East, the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea has signed a loan agreement worth $5 billion, or nearly 6 trillion won, with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the state-owned oil company of the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday.  The framework agreement was made at a meeting between Eximbank CEO Bang Moon-kyu and Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the UAE's ADNOC, held Sunday at the oil company

Market June 21, 2021

This is a part of a series of articles investigating financial activities of seniors during rapid digitalization of the finance industry. —Ed. Yang Kyung-soon, a 72-year-old grandma living in a small neighborhood in Uiseong, North Gyeongang Province, takes a two-hour round-trip bus journey to visit her bank. Twice a month, Yang makes the trip downtown to pay her utility bills.  She has banking service apps on her smartphone that can process the payment in a second, but she feels mo

Economy June 20, 2021