Among them, NH, KIS and KB Securities have been allowed to issue promissory notes. Samsung is excluded from the list due to its 2018 “fat thumb” scandal when it mistakenly paid employees 1,000 shares each instead of paying cash dividends of 1,000 won. Mirae Asset has also been excluded over alleged intratrading deals that involve Chairman Park Hyeon-joo and his family. Other brokerage firms such...

South Korea’s state-run pension operator has sharply increased its stakes in major listed firms after investment rules were eased at the beginning of this month, a financial market tracker said Sunday. As of end-January, the number of listed companies in which the National Pension Service held 5 percent or more stake came to 313, up 7.2 percent from the end of 2018, according to data compiled by...

Kyobo Securities is set to launch a dual CEO system to strengthen the company’s two business pillars -- investment banking and wealth management -- the company said Wednesday. The board of directors approved the nomination of Park Bong-kweon, the former vice president of Kyobo Life Insurance, as the firm’s new CEO in charge of wealth management. Park’s CEO designation will be finalized at the ge...

Amid the ongoing controversy regarding the improper sales of derivative-linked products by Korean commercial banks, investors in local lenders’ private equity funds have dipped nearly 37 percent, data compiled by a market operator showed Tuesday. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the number of private equity fund accounts sold by local commercial banks tallied 37,409, as o...

South Korean stocks ended nearly flat Monday, with fears of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus weighing down investor sentiments. Stocks on China’s major exchanges plunged on the first trading session after an extended Lunar New Year holiday that lasted from Jan. 24 to Feb. 2, which dragged down local indexes here even further. The benchmark bourse Kospi opened sharply lower at 2,086.61 po...

South Korean stocks have fluctuated between losses and gains amid growing fears about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak around the world. Since health authorities confirmed the first coronavirus case here, Seoul’s benchmark Kospi has dipped nearly 6 percent, according to the nation’s sole stock market operator on Sunday. As of Friday, the Kospi index shed 5.85 percent from Jan. 17, the last tradin...

The nation’s central bank is not considering additional rate cuts to counter the potential impact of the Wuhan coronavirus on the Korean economy, a senior official said Thursday. “We need to keep monitoring the outbreak. Although it is expected to affect sentiment and the market, including the country’s economic growth, consumer prices and current account, it’s too early to predict the extent of...

This marks the longest period that a CEO of a financial institution has been unable to enter his office. KB Kookmin Bank’s former CEO Lee Kun-ho was obstructed for 14 consecutive days upon his appointment in 2013. Lee, who was appointed in a similar top-down manner under the Park Geun-hye administration, also met with union resistance over government involvement. IBK union members have consisten...

South Korean stocks trimmed their losses Tuesday, losing 3 percent on the first trading session after the four-day Lunar New Year’s holiday, as the fast-spreading Wuhan coronavirus outbreak weakened investor sentiments. The local currency closed at 1,176.7 won against the US dollar, up 8 won from the previous session’s close, declining to a two-month low. The benchmark bourse Kospi opened sharpl...

Investors have been increasingly turning to real estate funds, looking for low-risk, high-return investments, according to data on sunday. Total investments in real estate funds stood at 99.39 trillion won ($84.90 billion) -- 96.19 trillion won for private equity funds and 3.21 trillion won for public funds -- as of Jan. 21, according to data released by the Korea Financial Investment Associatio...

The Korea Exchange said Wednesday it will make efforts to revitalize the sluggish stock market with more convenience for domestic and foreign investors. “To attract more long-term investors to the market and contribute to the nation’s economy, we will also offer new and diverse global investment products to raise the dynamics of the stock market,” said Lim Jae-joon, president of the Kospi Market...

A majority of corporate honchos attending the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have given the thumbs down to global economic growth this year, a survey by global accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers showed Tuesday. Over 50 percent of the corporate leaders have lowered their forecast for this year’s global economic growth pace, amid lingering uncertainties such ...

The number of active security accounts in South Korea is nearing 30 million amid growing stock trading activities focused on overseas markets, according to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association on Monday. As of Thursday, the number of active equity accounts was around 29.4 million. It is expected to soon reach 30 million, considering its fast growth, the self-regulatory financial ...

More than 30 Kospi 200 firms still have no whistleblowing policy for transparent management of their accounting control system, according to the latest report released by Samjong KPMG on Monday. The accountancy firm’s report shows that 34 of the top 200 Kospi firms, have no whistleblowing policy within their account rule books, while three others did not publicly disclose their policies through ...

South Korea’s stock market was tepid in 2019 and continues to face uncertainties, rankling many investors who are complaining that technology firms are being preferred for listing on the secondary Kosdaq bourse. While the stock market operator has highlighted the system as a vital foothold for new promising and innovative business players, skeptics also suggest that it provides excessive benefit...