SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Controversy is flaring up over banks’ loan-deposit margins as households are suffering from higher interest rate burdens while banks are chalking up huge profits by raising loan interest rates higher than deposit rates. The combined net profit of the nation’s five major financial holding firms — KB Financial Group [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Car insurers in South Korea turned to a profit in 2021 for the first time in four years thanks to a pandemic-caused fall in loss rates and a rise in insurance premiums and subscribers, data showed Monday. According to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), 12 car [...]
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Shinhan Card Co. said Friday that it is vetting its card numbering scheme as some issued cards turned out to be vulnerable to security and unauthorized payments. There have been reports of unauthorized payments of its gift cards on online shopping platforms, although there has not been any reported [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Financial affiliates of South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group on Thursday launched an integrated financial service app that offers various financial plans spanning insurance to financial investment. The new Samsung app, Monimo, offers services from four Samsung financial affiliates, such as Samsung Life Insurance Co., Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator on Wednesday approved a digital insurance business by Kakao Corp. in a move that could heat up competition in the fledging digital insurance market. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) made the decision, saying the operator of the country’s leading mobile messenger KakaoTalk has satisfied all [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks’ overseas operations saw their earnings jump nearly 62 percent in 2021 from a year earlier on higher interest income, data showed Wednesday. The combined net profit of local lenders’ 204 overseas subsidiaries and branches stood at US$1.17 billion in 2021, up 62.1 percent from a year [...]
SEOUL, April 6 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, said Wednesday that it garnered more than 7.5 million customers in five years of its launch thanks to a steep increase in mid- and low-credit loans and the rising popularity of mobile banking. K-Bank has enjoyed brisk business growth in the recent years, [...]
SEOUL, April 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online banks’ household loans grew nearly 8 percent in the first three months of this year amid decreased lending by offline rivals, industry sources said Tuesday. Outstanding household lending by the three online banks — Kakao Bank, K-Bank and Toss Bank — came to 36.14 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea continued to reduce the number of their offline branches in 2021 as part of efforts to reduce costs amid the expanded use of mobile banking, data showed Wednesday. The number of brick-and-mortar branches run by local banks came to 6,904 as of end-2021, down 311 [...]
SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Development Bank (KDB), a state-run lender, said Tuesday its customers will be allowed to use ATMs and other offline branch offices of Hana Bank as part of efforts to enhance customer convenience. Under a deal for cooperation, all KDB customers will be able to use 3,576 ATMs [...]