SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean banks have been accused of staying off the radar and making profits through high additional interest rates for banking products such as loans, despite government efforts to lower interest rates. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed by lawmaker Park Chan-dae, who is a member [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s household lending by banks rose at the slowest pace in five months in September, but mortgage loans continued the upside trend amid the government’s toughened financial measures to cool down the real estate market, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding household loans from lenders came to 749.2 [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Scores of children of the owners of nine conglomerates in South Korea have more than 100 billion won (US$88.2 million) worth of stocks in related companies, government data showed Thursday, amid the owners preferring the early transfer of assets to their offspring to reduce inheritance tax down the road. The amount [...]
SEJONG, Oct. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – More than 10 million South Koreans swiped their credit cards in foreign countries in 2016 on a sharp rise in overseas travelers, a report showed Monday. A total of 10.79 million people made overseas purchases worth 16.35 trillion won through credit cards in 2016, up from 9.19 million a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – The Bank of Korea said Friday it has injected a net 7 trillion won (US$6.1 billion) in liquidity into the financial system to help keep the money supply stable ahead of the Chuseok holiday. The central bank said its money injection for the 10 business days leading up to the holiday jumped 43.3 percent from a year ago as this year’s holidayis the longest in decades. The government gave [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks sharply scaled up their investment in tech startups in the first half of the year with their lending to the sector climbing solidly, the financial regulator said Thursday. Domestic lenders’ investment in low-credit startups with a high level of technology stood at some 1.2 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – K-Bank said Wednesday it will launch lending services for home mortgages and non-life insurance distribution by the end of this year, expanding its business portfolio to intensify competition with traditional banks. The Internet-only bank, which was launched in April with paid-in capital of 250 billion won, will also launch [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – A new survey has revealed that most South Korean financial consumers still prefer safer choices such as installment savings plans, despite low interest rates and a booming stock market. According to the online survey conducted by pollster NICE R&C with a sample of 19,300 people aged between 20 and 64 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — KB Kookmin Card Co. said Thursday it is pushing to tap into Myanmar’s credit card market after getting the nod to set up an office in the Southeast Asian country. KB Kookmin Card, a unit of South Korea’s banking giant KB Financial Group Inc., said it won approval from [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Thursday the regulator seeks to build an innovation-friendly financial environment to help the growth of the financial technology industry. Choe Heung-sik, governor of the FSS, made the remarks during a conference in Seoul to debate how best the financial industry [...]