SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The national pension fund has resumed strategic foreign exchange hedging operations as authorities stepped up efforts to stabilize the local currency, sources said Friday. The National Pension Service (NPS) restarted the program after extending both its currency swap agreement and the temporary strategic hedging scheme for another year, which [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean investors turned to familiar blue chips and high-flying U.S. technology stocks when gifting shares this year, with Samsung Electronics emerging as the most popular choice, according to data released by KB Securities. An analysis of KB Securities’ stock-gifting service, covering transactions through Dec. 22, showed that shares of [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong retained the top spot among South Korea’s stock-rich individuals, with his equity holdings increasing sharply over the past year amid a strong rally in the local stock market, industry data showed Wednesday. The top 100 shareholders of listed companies held shares worth a [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial watchdog on Monday unveiled an ambitious roadmap to overhaul consumer protection, signaling a shift away from after-the-fact remedies toward preemptive intervention across the life cycle of financial products. The Financial Supervisory Service said it aims to make 2025 a “foundational year” for substantive consumer protection by embedding [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial watchdog warned on Monday that bonus systems at banks and other financial institutions remain overly focused on short-term performance, even as incentive pay surged more than 30 percent last year. The Financial Supervisory Service said total performance-based compensation paid to employees at financial companies reached 1.396 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly seven in ten individual investors in South Korea earned profits from stock trading this year, buoyed by gains in large-cap shares despite continued volatility in the broader market, according to data released Thursday. An analysis by Shinhan Securities of domestic stock transactions from January through November found that 67 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Increased liquidity is not the sole factor behind the recent surge in housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area or the weakness of the local currency, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday, stressing that monetary policy alone is not sufficient to fully control an increase in loans. In [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s wealthy population continued to grow last year, exceeding 476,000 individuals with more than 1 billion won (about $760,000) in financial assets, according to a new report that highlights widening asset gaps and a renewed appetite for stock investments despite a climate of economic uncertainty. The 2025 Korea Wealth [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Household borrowing from South Korean banks grew at a slower pace in November as tighter mortgage regulations began to cool the heated property market in the Seoul metropolitan area, according to new data released Wednesday by the Bank of Korea. Outstanding household loans came to 1,175.6 trillion won ($799.6 billion) [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Shares of South Korea’s two largest memory chipmakers rose sharply on Monday amid mounting expectations for robust fourth-quarter earnings, reflecting renewed investor confidence in the artificial intelligence–driven semiconductor cycle. SK hynix closed 6.07 percent higher at 577,000 won on the Korea Exchange, recovering the 570,000-won level for the first time [...]