SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Both the volume and face value of damaged banknotes and coins found in South Korea rose to record highs last year, data from the central bank showed Wednesday. A record 627 million damaged bills and coins were discarded by the Bank of Korea (BOK) in 2018, up 4.1 percent [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent strike by employees of KB Kookmin Bank has raised controversy over idle manpower in the banking sector. Usually, when there is a strike, all operations should stop for a while, creating inconvenience to customers. However, most KB Kookmin Bank branches ran smoothly on the day of the [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — KT Corp. and Kakao Corp. are set to begin work to raise their stakes in their own Internet-only banks — K-Bank and Kakao Bank — as a law that eases the ownership rule for web-only banks will go into effect later this week, but their plans to raise stakes [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — About 60 percent of South Koreans say that advertisements for financial products are exaggerated, a survey showed Wednesday, underscoring customers’ mistrust towards the sector as a whole. The survey, conducted by Gallup Korea and commissioned by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), showed that 60.7 percent of the 2,194 respondents [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a bill that eases ownership rules for Internet-only banks as the government plans to grant approval to more web-only banks this year, the financial regulator said. The bill allows information technology firms, such as Internet portal Naver or gaming firm Nexon, to hold more [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Insurance Development Institute announced on January 7 that it has started developing a new assessment tool called ‘Automobile Repair Cost On-line Service-α’ (AOS-α). The system’s artificial intelligence (AI) will estimate vehicle repair costs by analyzing pictures of car wrecks caused by traffic accidents. The institute is planning [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Workers at KB Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s leading lender, launched a nationwide strike Tuesday for the first time in 19 years over wage system reforms and bonuses, its labor union said. The one-day walkout started at 9 a.m., as last-minute overnight negotiations between the labor and the management did [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Workers at KB Kookmin Bank, a major South Korean lender, will go on a general strike next month for the first time in 19 years, its labor union said Thursday. Around 96 percent of some 12,000 unionized workers voted in favor of the walkout in protest of the management’s [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The financial regulator said Sunday it can give preliminary approval to two Internet-only banks in May next year, but hinted that only one group could receive approval if another group is unsuccessful. Two Internet-only banks — K-Bank and Kakao Bank — were launched last year, challenging traditional banks in [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The financial watchdog said Thursday it has revised its guidelines to allow borrowers to make online requests to banks for lower loan rates starting in 2019. Currently, borrowers with a good credit score must visit a physical bank branch to ask a bank to cut their loan rate. From [...]