Citibank Korea has signed a memorandum of understanding with Yanolja to support the local accommodation booking platform’s overseas business activities, officials said Monday.  Under the agreement, the lender’s US parent company Citigroup will offer its global networks to Yanolja which aims to expand its client base not only in advanced markets such as the United States and Europe, but also emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. Yanolja currently offers a cloud-base

Market May 24, 2021

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said Sunday it had launched a digital asset management service within its mobile banking application that helps its customers build a retirement portfolio. Through the new mobile platform, dubbed “retirement planning on the palm of your hand,” subscribers to SC Bank Korea’s mobile banking application can create a comprehensive financial plan to achieve retirement income goals. Customers can also receive useful information on how much money they mi

Market May 23, 2021

Swiss banking giant UBS said Thursday it has appointed Chang Sei-yoon, the incumbent head of the global markets division at UBS Securities Seoul, as its new country head for the group’s operations in South Korea.  “(Chang) has contributed greatly to UBS‘s growth in Korea and has a deep understanding of the Korean market and clients,” said Edmund Koh, president of UBS Asia Pacific, citing Chang’s more than 25 years of expertise in Korean financial markets. 

Market May 20, 2021

Gold prices in South Korea have continued to gain as investors seek to park their money in safer destinations amid escalating inflation concerns, while high-risk cryptocurrency Bitcoin saw its price drop, data showed Wednesday.  On Tuesday, the price for a gram of gold rose 0.56 percent from the previous session to 68,200 won ($60.50) on the local bourse, maintaining an upward trend for the fourth consecutive day, according to the Korea Exchange. The figure was the highest since it hit a

Market May 19, 2021

South Korea is one of the unhappiest countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, largely because of its long working hours and high poverty rate for senior citizens, state-run think tank the Korea Development Institute said Wednesday.  The country’s happiness level between 2018 and 2020 on average stood at 5.85 points out of 10, placing Korea at No. 35 out of the OECD’s 37 members. Only Greece and Turkey were unhappier with 5.72 points and 4.95 poi

Economy May 19, 2021

Responding to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea’s middle-income households turned out to have reduced private spending more sharply than those in the upper and bottom income brackets, state-run think tank Korea Development Institute said Monday.  The nation’s middle class, which generally refers to households belonged to the third highest income quintile that earn 40 percent to 60 percent of the median income, saw its consumption expenditures shrink 6

Market May 17, 2021

Because of rising food prices, Lee Jung-min, a 30-year-old Seoul resident, has recently turned to home gardening to substitute buying vegetables from supermarkets. One of her main crops is green onions. By slicing off the roots of leftover green onions and putting them into a pot filled with soil and compost, Lee has successfully regrown a number of green onions enough for her to eat for a month. “I was shocked by the price of green onions, which surged to nearly 6,000 won ($5.31) ear

Market May 16, 2021

Transforming South Korean economy into a fairer and more transparent one was what President Moon Jae-in had in mind when entering office in 2017.  To soothe the public enraged over high-profile corruption involving the former president, his political archrival Park Geun-hye, Moon and his campaigners unveiled a series of economic policies pursuing the income-led and innovation-based growth, painting the rosy picture on mitigating the nation’s widening wealth disparity.  Now wi

Economy May 13, 2021

A nonfungible token of the historic match between between South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol and Google’s artificial intelligence Go player AlphaGo has been auctioned off as a digital content on OpenSea, the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs, officials said Monday.  A nonfungible token is a digital recreation of media contents such as videos and photos that is traded via the blockchain. Upon the purchase through the internet auction site, investors can declare ownership of

Market May 11, 2021

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said Monday it had launched a new digital platform within its mobile banking application to provide wealth management information, targeting the under-40s.  Branded as Wealth Care Lounge, the app-based information channel introduces recent investment trends, money management tips, advice from experts on financial planning and information regarding upcoming finance webinars.  The bank also set up its own KakaoTalk Channel as well as webpage on Naver Pos

Market May 10, 2021

The partial reactivation of short selling in South Korea, which kicked off last week, weakened investor sentiment among day traders, but the overall impact on the market was limited, according to industry sources on Monday.  The key stock index maintained its upward trend. Short selling is a trading tactic where investors immediately sell borrowed stocks on a bet that share prices will fall, allowing them to profit by later repurchasing the stocks and returning them to the lender. 

Market May 10, 2021

Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup, has started to look for buyers for the lender’s consumer banking operations, industry sources said Sunday. The Korean subsidiary recently conveyed its willingness to receive letters of investment intent to a number of potential buyers interested in the lender’s retail banking unit, through its merger and acquisition division as well as Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities -- the US banking giant’s local subsidiary in cha

Market May 9, 2021

Behind the bustling Chungmuro Station in Jung-gu, central Seoul, a quiet alley within Pil-dong, a small neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Mount Namsan, is catching the eyes of people seeking Instagrammable spots. Walls and building facades painted with cartoon characters and illustrations as well as uniquely themed sculptures are nestled along the alleyway, turning the place into an art festival. Named Pil-dong culture and arts street, or Yesultong, the area has been filled with ar

Economy May 8, 2021

   Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup, has pledged to continue its role in supporting the country’s financial system, regardless of its parent company’s plan to withdraw retail banking operations in the nation, the lender said Thursday. Last month, the US banking giant announced that it would exit its consumer banking units in Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand, as part of its

Market May 6, 2021

Faster than anyone could have imagined, South Korea’s IT platforms, which have had no banking experience at all, have quickly become a dominant force in the nation’s retail banking scene.  The COVID-19 pandemic has been defining moment for digital transformation, according to industry watchers, with the rising number of consumers preferring non-face-to-face banking services.  According to the Bank of Korea, the volume of money transfers and loan applications carried out

Market May 4, 2021